Last week a federal judge ruled in favor of 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish, New Orleans residents, who claimed the Army Corps of Engineers was negligent in designing and maintaining the city’s levees. U.S. District Judge Stanwood R. Duval has opened the door to potentially thousands of Katrina victims with the $720,000 he awarded to the group of four residents and one business owner.
“While the United States government is immune, it is not free, nor should it be, from posterity’s judgment concerning its failure to accomplish what was its task,” Duval said. “Millions of dollars were squandered in building a levee system, which was known to be inadequate by the Corps’ own calculations.”
An Army report suggested that the total liability the government could face from the tens-of-thousands of homeowners and business owners affected by the flooding could be upwards of $500 billion.
Flooding Caused by Katrina
The suit claimed that the Army Corps failed to properly construct and maintain the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) canal, which led to a virtually unhindered flooding of the parish as storm waters surged.
Judge Duval noted that the Army Corps failed to properly maintain the Mister Go (the local nickname for the MRGO); however, Duval rejected the notion that the design of the levee system was faulty, citing the Flood Control Act of 1928.
“It is the Court’s opinion that the negligence of the Corps, in this instance by failing to maintain the MRGO properly, was not policy, but insouciance, myopia and shortsightedness,” said Duval in his written opinion given November 18. “The Corps had an opportunity to take a myriad of actions to alleviate this deterioration or rehabilitate this deterioration and failed to do so. Clearly the expression ‘talk is cheap’ applies here.”
It is estimated that insured damages from Katrina are more than $25 billion, last year alone, according to the Insurance Information Institute.
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Finally! Some of the tens-of-thousands of Katrina victims are given a little bit of compensation for the failures of their elected leaders. If the Army Corp and US Government have to pay upwards of $500 billion to victims of Katrina, that’ll be the best spent $500 billion on any given cause to date!
Good! I agree, Alex, to many lives have been destroyed by the negligence of city officials. Someone must pay!