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Federal Court rules Army Corps of Engineers liable for Katrina flooding

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 19, 2009 at 7:51 am

shipping channelFrom CNN:

“New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) — The Army Corps of Engineers’ failure to properly maintain a shipping channel linking New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico led to catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Katrina, a federal court ruled Wednesday.

“It is the court’s opinion that the negligence of the Corps, in this instance by failing to maintain the MRGO properly, was not policy, but insouciance, myopia and short-sightedness,” U.S. District Court Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. wrote in his lengthy ruling, referring to the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet canal.

“For over 40 years, the Corps was aware that the Reach II levee protecting Chalmette and the Lower 9th Ward was going to be compromised by the continued deterioration of the MRGO. … The Corps had an opportunity to take a myriad of actions to alleviate this deterioration or rehabilitate this deterioration and failed to do so. Clearly, the expression ‘talk is cheap’ applies here.” … “

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November 19, 2009 · Filed Under Levees, National water news

Comments

One Response to “Federal Court rules Army Corps of Engineers liable for Katrina flooding”

  1. Wes Rolley on November 19th, 2009 8:01 am

    When I first started paying close attention to the Delta, Dr. Mount was making the comparison between the Delta of the Mississippi and the Delta of the Sacramento / San Joaquin Rivers. Since that was post Katrina, it did not take more than a microsecond to get it.

    Just as the Army Corps of Engineers failed New Orleans then, they and the state legislature is failing us now and will, inevitably be held accountable. The current legislation is about taking more water, not about preventing a Katrina style disaster in San Joaquin County.

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