Judge Blames Corps for Katrina Flooding

The Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, a U.S. district judge in New Orleans ruled on Wednesday.

The court said the Corps was negligent in failing to maintain the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. Katrina’s winds pushed a wall of water up the MRGO, which breached a levee that flooded New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish.

According to several news reports, Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr. said the Corps’ failure to maintain the MRGO “was not policy, but insouciance, myopia and short-sightedness.”

Duval issued his ruling in a civil case in which six plaintiffs claimed more than $700,000 in damages. The Corps has been held liable in previous cases, but had claimed immunity from civil suits. However, the judge said that gross negligence by the Corps overrode any immunity claim.

The ruling could force the federal government to pay billions in damage claims, according to the attorney representing the New Orleans residents.

The Corps issued a statement that the Army and Justice Department were reviewing the ruling.

Contact R.G. Edmonson at bedmonson@joc.com.