Fecal matter impacts rotary blades: Federal Judge rules against Army Corps of Engineers for Katrina

[thewayne]

"The Christian Science Monitor reports that a federal judge has ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers — and thus the US government — is liable for a big chunk of the damage caused when hurricane Katrina pushed ashore on August 29, 2005 by failing to stop the natural widening of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet canal (aka Mr. Go) causing it to eventually bump up against the shore of Lake Borgne, on the city's east side. 'It is the court's opinion that the negligence of the corps, in this instance by failing to maintain the MR-GO properly, was not policy, but insouciance, myopia, and shortsightedness,' wrote US District Court Judge Stanwood Duval. Judge Duval said he believed it was the failure to shore up the outlet that 'doomed the channel to grow to two to three times its design width' allowing waves on Lake Borgne to enter the Mr. Go and travel into the east side of the city, battering the levees to a degree to which they were not designed. 'One of the greatest catastrophes in the history of the US' was both predictable and preventable, testified veteran Louisiana geologist Sherwood Gagliano, a former Corps consultant."

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/11/20/0742226/Federal-Judge-Says-Corps-of-Engineers-Liable-For-Katrina-Damage?art_pos=3

From what I've heard, Mr. Go was perhaps the single biggest contributor to damage from Katrina. The government paid for a lot of the cleanup, so is this going to be prompts for insurance companies and individuals to sue ACoE and the government or what? (Admittedly, I haven't yet read the articles linked to in the Slashdot column)

Comments

[silveradept]

For the damage they suffered, not just for the cleanup. It'll be kind of like suing the inspector who did not notice the big gaping hole in the water main and signed off on the house as livable. The inspector has been declared liable for the flood damage because he should have noticed and required the thing to be fixed before he let anyone buy the house.