Katrina victims swamp corps with trillions in claims

[flashl]

Tens of thousands of people whose property was destroyed when Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed New Orleans' protective levees have filed claims demanding the government pay astronomical sums that would be enough money to make multimillionaires of everyone in Louisiana.

The Army Corps of Engineers received 247 claims from residents, businesses and government agencies seeking $1 billion or more, according to the agency. That's the tip of a very large iceberg: The corps, which designed and built the city's storm protections, faces more than 489,000 claims for the damage and deaths in the post-Katrina flooding.

The claims are so massive the government could never hope to pay them. Rather, they are the hopeful — and at times inflated — requests of people reeling from losses.

Just the top filings add up to so much money that the entire annual output of the nation's economy — $12 trillion — couldn't pay them off, according to the corps' listing. It is the first public accounting of the scale of damage demands the corps faces.

...

By comparison, the Louisiana Recovery Authority estimates that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 together caused about $100 billion in physical damage statewide. The federal government already dedicated more than $130 billion on recovery from the hurricanes.

USA Today - Read Full Text

Citing 'trillions' in claims is enough to stop any serious consideration of Katrina victims claims.

[annabanana]

1. Sounds like an excuse to bash "trial lawyers" to me. . . .

USA Today sucks a lot.

[flashl]

2. Hopefully, the story about the corp, levee, and Katrina victims

will not be lost. During Congressional hearings, witnesses, some who managed levees, made compelling arguments about how events unfolded that raise questions about levees breaches during Katrina.