Judging Army: Corps of Engineers Held Liable For Some Floods in New Orleans After Katrina

Abandoned Gingerbread House

Lower Ninth Ward, N. O.

The good news is that no bodies seem to have been found here.  Picture was uploaded in February 2009.  Still abandoned all that time or ?

Picture allowed via Creative Commons license. No support of nor further contribution to this blog by photographer/artist implied. Thanks to "Clementine Gallot" at flickr.com. Click on picture to go to original site and for link to options on different sizes. Rollover picture for further attribution.

The flooding of the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernards Parish was due to negligence on a shipping canal from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico according to a decision on November 18, 2009 from a US District Court as reported by CNN.

 CNN also reports that that five out of six plaintiffs were eligible for damage awards from the flooding.  And I guess those will dwarf the $26k FEMA doled out to those who lost homes in the flood. "Lost your entire house?  Here's pocket change for you."  seemed to be FEMA's message.

Though the five winning couples got only about $170k each, the consensus is that 100,00 other homeowners will be eligible for awards as well.

See CNN "Court: Army Corps of Engineers liable for Katrina flooding" (no registration required) for details in a pretty thorough article that doesn't require registration or payment for access.

The sixth couple, who's home was in East New Orleans, was not awarded money or a victory or damages.  The Washington Post says that was because the judge concluded that the flooding of that area was not due to ACE negligence.

My thoughts:

If new rules hadn't been put in place forcing new housing to lack a bottom floor this could repopulate the Ninth Ward it seems.  Now that the flooding has been proven to be manmade, maybe they should rethink the restrictions as long as houses had a safe way to the roof or other safe spot at the height needed during the post Katrina flooding.

1800 killed.  Where have they been hiding that number?  That's much worse than has been reported before.

Yes, citizen this is our money, but we really owe these people and we will all be safer if we pay it out and make sure the Corps doesn't work like a bunch of slackers.

Micro payment receiving pundits in the comment section represent a libertarian lot mostly whining about people who live in floodable zones as well as other kinds of danger spots, ignoring the fact that just about every point in the US is a danger zone, if not for hurricanes and floods, then for tornadoes, earthquakes, slides, fires, etc.  Los Angeles will make Post Katrina New Orleans look like paradise if a big earthquake off shore unleashes the size Tsunami that is considered a possibility for the area.  I can guarantee if that happens half of us will end up in the Lower Ninthof New Orlieans looking for someplace safer to rebuild our lives.  And the "libertarian" commenters never think about what happens if a tornado wipes out half of the trailer park in which they live.  They'd probably even lose their entire stash of meth.  They don't seem to think about that, do they?

To get back to seriousness the constant clamor for reduced taxes by "friends" of fat cats is the biggest danger  to our nation today.   One day every libertarian and conservative activist will know that, but it is likely to be too late.

tags: katrina  army corps of engineers  new orleans  lower ninth ward  

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