The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is to blame for massive flooding in two areas New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and is liable for damages sought by five plaintiffs living there, a federal court judge in New Orleans ruled Nov. 18.
The court ruled earlier that while the Corps was exempt by law from claims for damages caused by failures of flood control structures, it was not exempt from claims for damages caused by navigation works, which fall under a different law. In this case it found such damages had occurred in St. Bernard Parrish and the Lower 9th Ward as a consequence of negligent maintenance and environmental degradation of natural buffers caused by the Corps' 1965 construction and subsequent operation of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet navigation channel. The MRGO provided a shortcut to the Gulf of Mexico along the eastern side of St. Bernard Parrish until the channel was closed earlier this year.