Posted on 04/25/2006 9:15:13 PM PDT by hole_n_one
NEW ORLEANS Five people whose homes were flooded during Hurricane Katrina sued the U-S Army Corps of Engineers today, accusing the agency of ignoring repeated warnings that a navigation channel it built would turn into a "hurricane highway."The lawsuit was filed in federal court in New Orleans and several prominent trial lawyers from Louisiana, Florida and California are backing it. The plaintiffs include Norman Robinson, a well-known news anchor on W-D-S-U-T-V, a New Orleans television station.
At issue is a 76-mile shipping channel known as the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, or MR-GO. The channel was built in the early 1960s as a short-cut to New Orleans. For years, environmentalists and emergency planners have blasted it as a destructive force because it has eroded enormous tracts of wetlands and increased the threat of flooding.
Scientists say those fears were borne out by Katrina when storm surge traveled up the channel and overwhelmed levees protecting St. Bernard Parish and eastern New Orleans. The Corps of Engineers has acknowledged that the channel contributed to the region's flooding.
The suit claims that if the agency had acted on the warnings, it would have designed the MR-GO differently and Katrina -- quote -- would have been an endurable event in New Orleans' history.
The plaintiffs are seeking compensation for themselves but also want Congress to set up a "Katrina Victims' Compensation Fund" similar to what the nation did for the families of the victims of the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The suit argues that the Corps can be held accountable for the damage because the channel is not shielded by immunity provisions afforded to flood control projects under the Mississippi Flood Control Act of 1928.
Mo money, mo money, mo money.
This kind of stuff does not help the image of New Orleans' residents in the eyes of the rest of the country.
The Corps should have recommended permanent evacuation of all homes located below sea level. It's probably not such a big problem if you live below sea level in Idaho, but below sea level between Lake Ponchetrain and the Gulf of Mexico, well, not smart.
Suing the US Army Corps of Engineers won't hurt at all and will solve all problems. Idiots.
Sponge Bob Lawyer-Pants will represent the plaintiffs.
The more money that they sue the Corp for, the less money available to fix and maintain the stuff that they already built.
i built/bought my house in a flood zone (below sea level). it's got to be bush's fault
forgot the /sarc
I agree.
My comment was intended to deride the blood sucking lawyers who I knew would be swarming around this issue.
My understanding is that the Corp of Engineers wanted to upgrade the levees and were sued by an environmental group, thus preventing the upgrades.
One more mess for W to clean up.
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