Army Corps of Engineers can be sued over Katrina (mrgo)

[uppityperson]

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/state/16613447.htm
NEW ORLEANS - Residents of the three areas flooded worst by Hurricane Katrina can sue the Army Corps of Engineers over claims that a poorly designed navigation channel caused catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Katrina, a federal judge ruled Friday.

The Corps of Engineers and federal government had argued they were immune from claims the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet caused the damage to the Lower 9th Ward, eastern New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish.

But U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval refused to throw out a suit claiming floods in those areas were caused by defects the Corps of Engineers had known about for decades...(more)

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-19/1170487761298180.xml&coll=1 Judge: Corps can be sued over flood
MR-GO negligence case can proceed
Saturday, February 03, 2007
By Susan Finch

The Army Corps of Engineers can't assert immunity in a lawsuit over the catastrophic flooding following Hurricane Katrina, because of the plaintiffs' claim that flooding stemmed from the agency's negligence in fixing defects in the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet navigation project that it had known of for years, a New Orleans federal court judge ruled Friday.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval's ruling cleared the way for WDSU-TV anchorman Norman Robinson, a Lower 9th Ward couple and two St. Bernard Parish residents to press for trial of a lawsuit blaming Army Corps of Engineers negligence for the flooding that destroyed their homes in Hurricane Katrina.

The plaintiffs' legal team said the case could go to trial by early next year, after Duval rejected corps arguments that the case should be tossed out because federal law makes the agency immune from lawsuits over its flood control projects and policy decisions.

Duval said the suit brought by Robinson and his fellow plaintiffs targets not a flood control project but what it calls the corps' negligent failure to fix defects in a navigation project it built years ago, the 70-plus-mile-long Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet shipping channel. (more)

[uppityperson]

1. MRGO is Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. a canal that makes a more direct route

Rather than having to navigate a bunch of miles of MS river, boats can take MRGO for a more direct route, as can storm surges. This was a cause of the flooding of NO. MRGO has been under contention for a while, wondering if the time saved actually made up for the risk, as well as (I think, LA residents help please) destruction of the wetlands. This could be interesting.

[BlooInBloo]

2. Can Connecticut voters be sued? Fucking jackasses.

[uppityperson]

3. Connecticut voters? I don't understand.

[BlooInBloo]

6. Wow...

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/1/16/154736/864

[uppityperson]

7. Landrieu supported Lieberman, who has decided to not hold admIn accountable for post Katrina.

Got it. This is holding those that made the flooding inevitable accountable. Thank you for the link as I hadn't read this yet.

[BlooInBloo]

10. np

[orleans]

4. i'm really surprised--and glad to hear this. at least those people

have a voice that can be heard SOMEWHERE!

besides, from what i understand, the army corps of engineers deserves to be sued to high fucking heaven.

thanks for posting this.

[bananas]

5. k&r - get this on the greatest page - two more votes needed

This could turn into the trial of the century.

[uppityperson]

8. thanks

[intheflow]

9. This is great!

The Army Corps of Engineers needs to be sued. They're fucking up Mississippi by filling in wetlands, so we can keep on flooding, too.

:kick:

[uppityperson]

11. 1 kick for the day sunday crew.