Katrina case raises costly question
The recent ruling here by a federal judge confirmed what victims of Hurricane Katrina have been arguing the past four years: the catastrophic floods in 2005 were a manmade disaster, not a natural phenomenon.
The landmark ruling blames negligence by the Army Corps of Engineers for some of the worst flooding from Hurricane Katrina.
The ruling could lead to billions of dollars in other legal action from storm victims, but it also leaves regional leaders with a dilemma: Should they ride the lawsuit’s momentum and try to extract potentially billions of dollars from the federal government to compensate Katrina victims? Or should they keep the focus on getting federal help for Louisiana’s multibillion-dollar coastal restoration efforts?