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Katrina's Victims Ask for Huge Checks
Associated Press ^ | 1/9/08 | MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

Posted on 01/09/2008 11:14:37 AM PST by Wicket

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Hurricane Katrina's victims have put a price tag on their suffering and it is staggering — including one plaintiff seeking the unlikely sum of $3 quadrillion.

The total number — $3,014,170,389,176,410 — is the dollar figure so far sought from some 489,000 claims filed against the federal government over damage from the failure of levees and flood walls following the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane.

Of the total number of claims, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it has received 247 for at least $1 billion apiece, including the one for $3 quadrillion.

"That's the mother of all high numbers," said Loren Scott, a Baton Rouge-based economist.

For the sake of perspective: A mere $1 quadrillion would dwarf the U.S. gross domestic product, which Scott said was $13.2 trillion in 2007. A stack of one quadrillion pennies would reach Saturn.

Some residents may have grossly exaggerated their claims to send a message to the corps, which has accepted blame for poorly designing the failed levees.

(Excerpt) Read more at ap.google.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: katrina; lawsuit; victims
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To: Wicket

The lawyers would get a third. This is just another way of getting “reparations”, since, in their world view, Bush, the great White devil, made the levees break and flood NO, and then abandoned the people because he is a racist.


21 posted on 01/09/2008 11:34:47 AM PST by Leftism is Mentally Deranged (yes, indeed, liberalism is a mental illness)
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To: Wicket
The total number — $3,014,170,389,176,410 — is the dollar figure so far sought from some 489,000 claims filed against the federal government over damage from the failure of levees and flood walls following the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane.

I knew there was a reason that John Edwards chose New Orleans to announce his campaign. He was already in town doing some paperwork.
22 posted on 01/09/2008 11:34:56 AM PST by philled ("CNBC?...You might as well be doing ham radio at that point."-- Dennis Miller)
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To: Wicket

Do ya think they might ask Senator/Presidential Hopeful Shyster Edwards to represent them? Sounds like it’s right up his alley.


23 posted on 01/09/2008 11:36:56 AM PST by samanella ((Iraq: Brave Soldiers, Vital Cause, Gutless Politicians))
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To: Obadiah

Here’s a breakdown on how the government money is being spent in Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/katrina/

Also please note that the Army Corps had admitted culpability in the failure of the levees.

http://www.nola.com/frontpage/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1144306231230500.xml


24 posted on 01/09/2008 11:38:56 AM PST by Mila
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To: Wicket

Congratulate me. I don’t live on a hurricane coast; I don’t live on a hurricane delta; I don’t live in swamp lowlands subject to flood; I don’t live on an active earthquake fault; I don’t live below a levee or dam; I don’t live in a mobile home in the midwest; I don’t live anywhere in Oklahoma nor do I travel anywhere near there; I don’t live in Johnstown, PA or on or near a river that floods; and I don’t rely on the Federal or State government to bail me out of natural disasters. I pay my insurance bills and I don not expect other Americans to rebuild my home, my shore second home (I don’t own one) after a fire, flood, earthquake, or tornado.


25 posted on 01/09/2008 11:39:39 AM PST by Doc Savage (The tree of liberty needs to be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants)
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To: Wicket
Caption This Picture (Ungrateful N.O. Welfare Bum) (www.nola.com 21 Dec. 2007 )


26 posted on 01/09/2008 11:39:49 AM PST by weegee (End the Bush-Bush-Bush-Clinton/Clinton-Clinton/Clinton-Bush-Bush-Clinton/Clinton Oligarchy in 2008.)
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To: Wicket

maybe we can just offer them a free trip to Chicago to see Oprah and call it even....


27 posted on 01/09/2008 11:40:36 AM PST by bpjam (Harry Reid doesn't even have 32% of my approval)
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To: Wicket

For $3 quadrillion, I could buy the entire state of Louisiana, raze it, and rebuild it bionically. I could make it better than it was before. Better . . . stronger . . . faster.


28 posted on 01/09/2008 11:40:55 AM PST by Xenalyte (Can you count, suckas? I say the future is ours . . . if you can count.)
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To: Leftism is Mentally Deranged
Wouldn’t lawyers get HALF if it went to trial? And don’t the plaintiffs have to pay ALL of the taxes (including the money they pay out to the attorneys)?
29 posted on 01/09/2008 11:41:05 AM PST by weegee (End the Bush-Bush-Bush-Clinton/Clinton-Clinton/Clinton-Bush-Bush-Clinton/Clinton Oligarchy in 2008.)
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To: Mila

Damn shame the CoE wasn’t clairvoyant. Guess that entitles the local welfare class to untold riches.


30 posted on 01/09/2008 11:42:26 AM PST by L98Fiero (A fool who'll waste his life, God rest his guts.)
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To: cjohnson1

“In Nevada we just had a smiliar situation happen... a canal broke and put 1,500 people out of their homes... totally destroyed Fernley Nevada... no one has blamed the government and demanded they get rich quick off it.”

Maybe their blaming the government because the government has acknowledged their blame. Please see post #16.


31 posted on 01/09/2008 11:42:57 AM PST by Mila
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To: Wicket

Wasn’t the state given money over time to fix those levies?

Typical liberals spent it on handouts to the very brain trusts who now demand quadrillions. Well, they already got the value for the buck.

Cases dismissed!


32 posted on 01/09/2008 11:44:04 AM PST by DoughtyOne (< fence >< sound immigration policies >< /weasles >< /RINOs >< /Reagan wannabees that are liberal >)
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To: Wicket
Grossly exaggerated claims, ya think???

Our court system with lawyer contingency fees has become a "lotto-like" system for many to try to get rich quick off of legal technicalities and sympathetic juries.

This country is in serious need of major tort reform laws.

33 posted on 01/09/2008 11:45:27 AM PST by Robert357 (D.Rather "Hoist with his own petard!" www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1223916/posts)
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To: Niteranger68

Someone in Louisiana is not keeping the pimp hand strong. A lot of people seem to need pimp-slappin’.

I’m in Houston - I could be there in three hours. Four, max.

Road trip, anyone?


34 posted on 01/09/2008 11:45:29 AM PST by Xenalyte (Can you count, suckas? I say the future is ours . . . if you can count.)
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To: Snickering Hound; glide625

Ping to my favorite graphic!


35 posted on 01/09/2008 11:46:50 AM PST by Xenalyte (Can you count, suckas? I say the future is ours . . . if you can count.)
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To: Wicket

Tell them to go collect from God.


36 posted on 01/09/2008 11:48:44 AM PST by 3niner (War is one game where the home team always loses.)
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To: L98Fiero

“Damn shame the CoE wasn’t clairvoyant. Guess that entitles the local welfare class to untold riches.”

Being clarvoyant has nothing to do with it. The Corps designed and built the levees. They had been warned since 1986 that separations in the floodwall could occur.

“Experts from the National Science Foundation, the external review panel for the corps, said potential problems have been known for some time. They cited a 1986 corps study that warned of just such separations in the floodwalls.

But Strock told the panel that the corps was unaware of the potential hazard before Aug. 29, when Hurricane Katrina drove a massive surge of water against New Orleans’ storm-protection system. He said the corps is evaluating all the levees to see whether they, too, could fail in the same way.

“There may be other elements in the system designed that way that may have to be addressed,” Strock said.

http://www.nola.com/frontpage/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1144306231230500.xml


37 posted on 01/09/2008 11:49:38 AM PST by Mila
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To: Doc Savage
Congratulate me. I don’t live on a hurricane coast; I don’t live on a hurricane delta; I don’t live in swamp lowlands subject to flood; I don’t live on an active earthquake fault; I don’t live below a levee or dam; I don’t live in a mobile home in the midwest; I don’t live anywhere in Oklahoma nor do I travel anywhere near there; I don’t live in Johnstown, PA or on or near a river that floods; and I don’t rely on the Federal or State government to bail me out of natural disasters. I pay my insurance bills and I don not expect other Americans to rebuild my home, my shore second home (I don’t own one) after a fire, flood, earthquake, or tornado.

Be careful. In Lib-speak, all that means you owe somebody something, whether it's from taking advantage of the poor and less fortunate to get there, or because you have what they don't.

38 posted on 01/09/2008 11:50:25 AM PST by Squeako (Clothespin Republicans: Holding our noses for lousy candidates since 1988.)
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To: robertpaulsen
3Q is roughly 1000 times the whole world's annual GDP. The complainant believes he is entitled to the value of what everyone in the world produces for the next thousand years.

"including one plaintiff seeking the unlikely sum of $3 quadrillion."
He was going to ask for $4 quadrillion, but figured that would be excessive

Is this the same guy that lost a pair pf pants in Washington, DC.?

39 posted on 01/09/2008 11:51:34 AM PST by Freeper (I was culture in the 60's and now with the Clintons' "running things" I am suddenly Counter-Culture.)
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To: Xenalyte
I’m in Houston - I could be there in three hours. Four, max.

Road trip, anyone?

I heard from a Harris County prosecutor about a year ago that fully HALF of all his violent-crime prosecutions involved Katrina refugees. Maybe the lawsuits are aimed in the wrong direction.

MM (in TX)

40 posted on 01/09/2008 11:53:52 AM PST by MississippiMan
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