Cyrus Dugger

New Katrina Suits: Court Clears Way for Suit on New Orleans Flooding

Court Clears Way for Suit on New Orleans Flooding Cheryl Gerber for The New York Times Residents of areas near the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet contend it was to blame for much of the damage that resulted from Hurricane Katrina. By JOHN SCHWARTZ Published: February 3, 2007 Residents of several neighborhoods in the New Orleans area that were hardest hit by flooding after Hurricane Katrina can sue the Army Corps of Engineers over their claims that a government-built navigation channel was largely to blame, a federal judge ruled yesterday. Successful lawsuits against the corps could result in billions of dollars in damage payments. Since the flood, those who lived in the devastated neighborhoods near the east side of New Orleans — including the Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans East and St. Bernard Parish — have contended that the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet caused much of their damage by intensifying the surge from the storm. The damage, they say, was foreseeable. After residents filed lawsuits, the government tried to get them dismissed. The corps argued that it was protected from lawsuits by the Flood Control Act of 1928, which grants it immunity from liability for flood damage caused by flood-control projects, like levees. But yesterday, Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr. of the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, cited previous cases saying that the channel was not a flood-control project. (link)

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Posted at 4:38 PM, Feb 05, 2007 in
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