Lawsuit Filed Against Corps of Engineers Over Katrina
Five people whose homes were flooded during Hurricane Katrina have sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The agency is accused of ignoring repeated warnings that a navigation channel it built would turn into a "hurricane highway." The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Orleans, involves a .76-mile shipping channel built in the early 1960s as a short-cut to New Orleans. The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet has eroded enormous tracts of wetlands and increased the threat of flooding. It appears from media reports that the levy system was poorly designed and was totally inadequate to do the required job.
During Katrina, 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. Flood gates are being built in an attempt to guard against future flooding. The suit claims that if the agency had acted on warnings that the channel could cause severe flooding, the agency would have designed it differently. Had that been done, it is contended that "Katrina would have been an endurable event." The plaintiffs, in addition to seeking compensation for themselves, also want Congress to set up a " Katrina Victims' Compensation Fund" similar to that set up for families of the victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks.
Source: Houston Chronicle
