Negligence ruling in Katrina floods may cost feds

[babylonsister]

Negligence ruling in Katrina floods may cost feds

By CAIN BURDEAU (AP) – 10 hours ago


NEW ORLEANS — The federal government could be vulnerable to billions of dollars in claims after a judge ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers' failure to properly maintain a navigation channel led to massive flooding in Hurricane Katrina.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval on Wednesday awarded seven plaintiffs $720,000, but the government could eventually be forced to pay much more. The ruling should give more than 100,000 other individuals, businesses and government entities a better shot at claiming damages.

Duval sided with six residents and one business who argued the Army Corps' shoddy oversight of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet led to the flooding of New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward and neighboring St. Bernard Parish. He said, however, the corps couldn't be held liable for the flooding of eastern New Orleans, where two of the plaintiffs lived.

The ruling is also emotionally resonant for south Louisiana. Many in New Orleans have argued that the flooding in the aftermath of Katrina, which struck the region Aug. 29, 2005, was a manmade disaster caused by the Army Corps' failure to maintain the levee system protecting the city.

"Total devastation could possibly have been avoided if something had been done," said Tanya Smith, one of the plaintiffs. "A lot of this stuff was preventable and they turned a deaf ear to it."

The 36-year-old registered nurse anesthetist lived in Chalmette close to the channel when Katrina hit. She was awarded $317,000 in property damages, the most of any of the plaintiffs.

Duval referred to the corps' approach to maintaining the channel as "monumental negligence."

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[Louisiana1976]

1. It's about time!

[ixion]

2. monumental CRIMINAL negligence...

in my opinion...

[Zoeisright]

3. Yep, the infrastructure of this country has been ignored since Reagan.

He's the asshole who started this.

[stray cat]

4. Seriously doesn't it mean you and I will be paying for it?

Health care reform or pay off plantifs from Katrina. What am I missing? Don't you and I now owe even more tax dollars?

[Louisiana1976]

6. Why can't it be foreign aid or pay off plaintiffs from the Federal Flood?

I'd rather see this money used at home helping New Orleans' plaintiffs than squandered overseas in countries where they don't like us.

[babylonsister]

7. I don't know, but the people affected by Katrina were denied justice

from one judge after another who sided with the * admin. I think it's time the victims were paid for the errors of the government.

There but for the grace...it could have been you or me, too.

[stray cat]

8. It is you and I in the sense that we are liable it seems for monetary damages?

Are you happy to be charged an extra 5% tax on your gross income - thats where the rubber really meets the road on the willingness to provide restitution.

Or to forego health reform?

[babylonsister]

9. I'm not willing to worry about that now as no one knows how this will be

resolved, or even if.

And who said anything about foregoing health care reform?

I'm not borrowing trouble I don't need.

[Chulanowa]

5. Gosh, it's only been four years...

And all the people responsible are out of office.

Make their asses responsible for the damages!