Author: Eric Jensen, Managing Editor
After Professor Heldman’s Disaster Politics class lived in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans for three weeks immersed in the issues surrounding the effects of Hurricane Katrina, the Weekly wanted to facilitate regular updates on the situation that would be readily accessible to Oxy students. Contrary to the media coverage that will be emerging during Mardi Gras, the problems in the city are far from solved, and the staff believes staying informed about the ongoing struggle to resuscitate New Orleans will enrich the discussions and events on campus, especially during Black History Month.
On Wednesday, January 30, Judge Stanwood R. Duval, Jr. ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency responsible for building and maintaining the levee system in New Orleans, could not be held liable for the breached levees that flooded the city during Hurricane Katrina.
Over 350,000 New Orleans businesses, governmental bodies and residents who acted as plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit against the agency would have received trillions of dollars in flood damages had they won. However, stipulations in the Flood Control Act of 1928 grant the government legal immunity should a flood protection system fail, leaving the plaintiff body alone to grapple with skyrocketing housing prices and the cost of rebuilding.
Duval issued the verdict begrudgingly. “While the United States government is immune for legal liability . . . it is not free, nor should it be, from posterity’s judgment concerning its failure to accomplish what was its task,” his statement read. “Millions of dollars were squandered in building a levee system, with respect to these outfall canals, which [were] known to be inadequate by the corps’s own calculations.”
Indeed, the Corps admitted in a report released in July 2007 that they sacrificed the stability of the levee system and the safety of the city in the interest of politics and saving money, as reported by John Schwartz of the New York Times. “Again and again . . . corps officials decided to push forward with the plan they had,” Schwartz wrote, “rather than change course, incur greater costs and further delays and risk the wrath of Congress.”
The levee system breached in several places throughout the city when a storm surge caused by Hurricane Katrina overcame its weakening structure. The subsequent flooding took a significant share of the approximately 2,000 lives lost in the disaster, but Corps spokeswoman Kathy Gibbs nevertheless said she agreed with Duval’s dismissal, according to the Associated Press.
Meanwhile, New Orleans residents whose homes and livelihoods were ravaged by Katrina survey the damage, many visiting from other cities or states where they’ve moved to escape the destruction. Adam Nossiter of the New York Times interviewed displaced resident Sylvia Young, a former schoolteacher in the Lower Ninth Ward now relocated to La Place, Louisiana, who said, “Everything is just gone. It’s either torn down or partially being rebuilt or just nothing done to it at all.”
While Duval’s verdict does not bode well for those who wish to return and rebuild, one lawyer who worked on the case believes that his public disdain for the Corps is a sign of progress. “You now have a US federal district judge who’s had a chance to evaluate the facts and draw legal conclusions,” the lawyer said. “Now you’ve got a determination where a guy says, ‘Look, but for the nuances of the statute, these people will be called on to pay.’ “
The Corps is currently working on new plans to protect the city of New Orleans from future disasters, and anticipates several more lawsuits in the coming months.
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
