US Army responsible for New Orleans floods
A US judge has ruled that the negligence of army engineers led to the severe flooding in parts of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The complaint, by six residents and one business, against the US Army Corps of Engineers over its maintenance of a navigation channel was upheld by the court.
Damages totaling $720,000 (£431,000) were awarded and the landmark ruling could lead to thousands more claims.
Roughly 80% of New Orleans was flooded by Hurricane Katrina and over 1,800 people died on the Gulf coast during the devastating storms.
The Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for maintaining a network of canals and earthworks which are intended to protect New Orleans from storm surges and limit flooding.
US district judge Stanwood Duval ruled "negligent failure" to maintain the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet - a shipping channel - had led to flooding in the city's Lower 9th Ward and nearby St Bernard Parish.
Judge Duval maintained that the Army could not be held accountable for the flooding that took place in eastern New Orleans.
In the 156-page ruling, Judge Duval held the Army Corps accountable for failing to shore up the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet which “doomed the channel to grow to two or three times its design width” leading to “a more forceful frontal attack on the levee”.
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Good for them. Finally some accountability!
Says the guy who commented as an Anonymous user.
Says the guy who uses only a last initial...
ROMG!...they did 9/11 too, them fuuz!
Those of us who lived in the area at the time have known from day 1 that the Army Corp of engineers were responsible.
The title is VERY misleading... The Army Corps of Engineers is more than 95% comprised of corporations or businesses... They are protected from lawsuits and guaranteed work under the guise of being part of the "Government"... Similiar to the "Federal Reserve", which is not a Federal Entity whatsoever...
I could swear the that Katrina causes the flooding. This is like suing the plumber for your toilet backing up after you took the enormous crap. Maybe they should sue the weather station for not telling them to leave. Or the ACoE can counter sue for everyone who lived in an area that is prone to flood.
To the commenter above: The point of the ruling is that if the navigation channel had been functioning properly, the flooding would not have been as severe. We build things like this so that people don't have to live in fear of the weather.
If you hire a roofer to patch your roof and the next time it rains you get buckets of rain pouring in, the roofer can't say "it's the rain's fault"- the roofer was supposed to build a solid roof.
To use your own crude analogy, if the plumber did his job right, you're supposed to be able to crap in a toilet- not just keep it in your bathroom for decoration.
Even if they are private companies under contract, the government is supposed to be overseeing the work. The negligence is still the government's fault because they are the one's accountable to the people.
You all need to get a brain!
MORANS!
I don't understand, people who live in the flood planes think that it is the federal governments job to protect them... Why do people (like me) have to have our tax dollars be spent to 'protect' them? I don't see their money 'protecting' me.
The USACE is a government run construction management company. 95% of their work is subcontracted out to private company's. The corps is only allowed to award contracts for certain dollar amounts based on their budget that congress sets for the given year, and based on the economic value of the jobs. If the problem will cost more than the economic value it will create for the city, the contract value is capped off at the limit.
New Orleans is below sea level. The catastrophe was going to happen sooner or later.
Really, is this what the worlds coming to?
Hummm. I think I shall sue VDOT for the damage my car recieved when I drove over a very alge pot hole, becuase I was boxed in between two semis, that were congesting the highway because they won't widen the road or build new highways, let alone fix the pot hole. If they have a case I very well must also. They are living in a bowl. Common sense would have told them to move. But as Long as the goverment is involved what is the need for responsibiliy.
To the anonymous writer who said: I don't understand, people who live in the flood planes think that it is the federal government's job to protect them... Why do people (like me) have to have our tax dollars be spent to 'protect' them? I don't see their money 'protecting' me.
The interdependence governing our life on this planet means your tax dollars are protecting your interests here: There would be no need for drilling and dredging in Louisiana,or for the massive amounts of energy used to refine oil here, if people across the U.S. didn't depend on it. There would be no need for navigational canals that have hastened LA land loss if U.S. and world trade didn't depend on them. There would be no need for the wetlands (the Gulf Coast has 40% of the nation's wetlands) if species from around the world didn't depend on them and we didn't depend on those species, or if we didn't depend on the many other functions the disappearing wetlands perform.
More reasons are listed in the rest of my book, WHY PEOPLE LIVE IN NEW ORLEANS.
I think that the flooding from 2005 was a curse from GOD THE ALMIGHTY FATHER, that New Orlean's was one state that approves and agreed to the protesters lead by gay and lesbians. I Think that was not what the bible says about man and women. I think the people that approved the rights given to gays and lesbians have to repent and ask GOD for his forgiveness and only then the water level will decrease and people will live happily ever after.