JUDGE ENDS KATRINA FLOODING LAWSUITS AGAINST FEDS

[xchrom]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_KATRINA_FLOOD_LAWSUITS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-12-28-17-28-22

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Dozens of lawsuits seeking damages from the federal government for Hurricane Katrina-related levee failures and flooding in the New Orleans area are over.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. has dismissed the cases. The move comes more than a year after a federal appeals court overturned his ruling that held the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers liable for flooding caused by lax maintenance of a shipping channel.

Duval has also dismissed a parallel lawsuit against a contractor. It claimed excavation work weakened flood walls in New Orleans' Industrial Canal. Duval entered the orders to dismiss the cases on Dec. 20.

More than 500,000 residents, businesses and governments filed claims against the Corps. People in southern Louisiana have long taken for granted that the flooding in the wake of the 2005 storm was a man-made disaster - one caused specifically by the corps - and they have wanted the agency to pay up for lost homes and property.

[giftedgirl77]

1. All of those judges are playing dirty...

This entire situation as stunk from day 1.

[Live and Learn]

2. So the government can institute housing and flooding regulations

but the people that abide by and live by them, thinking it makes them safe are on their own even when the government fails to maintain their own canals that diverted water from unsafe areas to those people would assume safe?

These were man made canals that were not maintained, failed and diverted water from the lake into areas that likely would have been safe without the erection of the canals.

And let's not even mention how the government ignored the plight of these people (in a never here to for seen, at least by me) as they suffered needlessly for not days but weeks for aid for basic human needs.

I visited the 9th ward this last summer and the devastation is still obvious.