NEW ORLEANS -- A federal court judge has ruled in favor of several plaintiffs in a case deciding whether the Mississippi River Gulf Coast Outlet is in part to blame for the flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina.
Judge Stanwood R. Duval, Jr awarded over $719,000 to four different sets of plaintiffs who alleged that the MRGO, a 76-mile manmade waterway that allowed vessels to quickly get from the Gulf of Mexico to the Industrial Canal, exacerbated the conditions that led to flooding in the St. Bernard area.
The ruling could set a precedent for over 400,000 other residents who have filed damage claims against the government -- and that, says Dr. Ivor Van Heerden, is a huge win for the city of New Orleans.
“But I think this is a huge win, not only for the plaintiffs but also the people of New Orleans, and that finally we've got some acknowledgement of the [Army Corps of Engineers] fault and the failure of the levee system,” said Van Heerden, who provided data and consulted for the plaintiffs.
Read the judgment | Read the opinion
Duval was the judge who dismissed a lawsuit in 2008 over the failure of floodwalls along the 17th Street Canal, citing a decades-old lawsuit that protects the corps from liability for damages caused by flood-protection projects. With the MRGO, however, Duval ruled the corps is not protected against the liability because it is a navigation project.
In the end Duval ruled that the corps' oversight of the channel played a role in the flooding.
"Unfortunately it allowed the waves over Lake Borgne to reform and grow so large that they destroyed most of the MRGO levees even before landfall, and that way allowed the surge to get into St. Bernard and flood everything,” Van Heerden said.
Plaintiffs Anthony and Lucille Franz are to receive $100,000, Tanya Smith is to receive $317,000, Kent Lattimore is to receive $134,000 and Lattimore and Associates is to receive $168,000. Each will also receive funds to cover court costs.
Plaintiff Norman Robinson, a WDSU-TV anchor, was not awarded any money and must bear his own cost for court fees.
"The people of the city of New Orleans have been vindicated," said Joseph Bruno, an attorney for the plaintiffs.
The Army Corps of Engineers closed the MRGO in 2008.
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