First a Flood, then a Flood of Lawsuits

[Inspired by this]

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers was in fact not responsible for creating Hurricane Katrina -- the Category 5 Hurricane that devastated New Orleans and damaged much of the Gulf Coast area in August 2005.

Plaintiffs in the case represented 350,000 separate businesses, government entities and residents, and asked for billions of dollars in damages caused by the Hurricane.

The Plaintiffs in the case presented circumstantial evidence that the Army Corps of Engineers had intentionally engineered the disaster over the last 50 years by building a levee system that encouraged people to live and work in an area up to eight feet below sea level.

The plaintiffs also presented anecdotal evidence that linked Orleans Levee Board incompetence, corruption and misappropriation of funds directly to to the Army Corps of Engineers.

Further, the plaintiffs charged that the Army Corps of Engineers created Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf, aimed it at New Orleans, and then prevented the National Weather Service from warning residents until it was too late for an evacuation.

The Judge found the Corps immune to any damages resulting from the levee failure, ruling that the Flood Control Act of 1928, makes the federal government immune when
flood control projects like levees break.

One lawyer had this to say after the ruling; "The gub'ment feed us, the gub'ment clothes us, why canst they gives us cash when we gets flooded out?"   --C.E.