"Hurricane Highway" Lawsuit Goes To Trial

CBS Evening News: Katrina Victims Allege Army Corps Of Engineers Ignored Warning Signs When Building Man-Made Channel

(CBS)  For Anthony Franz and wife Lucille, their house was a treasured family heirloom.

"I was born in 1929, and came to this house. This was my first home from the hospital," Anthony Franz told CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian.

Then in August 2005 Hurricane Katrina tore it apart, burying their home in more than 10 feet of water.

"Now, at 80 years old, I got to find another place to die," Franz said.

Now they are part of a potentially groundbreaking lawsuit centering on the Mississippi Gulf Outlet, a 76-mile waterway built by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1960s. Known as the Mr. GO, it's a shortcut for ships between New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico.

"It's the most expensive catastrophe in United States history. And it's actually man made," said Jonathan Andry, the plaintiffs' lawyer.

Attorneys for the victims will argue the Corps was negligent in constructing and maintaining the outlet, creating, in effect, a "Hurricane Highway."

First, wetlands and wooded forests that served as natural flood barriers were destroyed and a faulty design created a funnel effect, accelerating the force and strength of the storm surge - leading to the collapse of the levees and the drowning of the city of New Orleans.

"This wouldn't have happened if the Corps had done their job properly," said Ivor van Heerden of the LSU Hurricane Center.

There's also a question about whether the Corps ignored repeated warnings, like a 1957 report stating in a hurricane, the existence of the channel will be an enormous danger.

The government contends Katrina was an overwhelming event it had no control over. In addition, it argues the Corps is immune from liability for projects it constructs.

The complex trial before a single federal judge is expected to last upwards of a month. If the plaintiffs prevail, the floodgates could open for as many as 200,000 other victims of Hurricane Katrina.

[darknessesedge]

build your next house in north dakota..no hurricanes there..
people who build their homes on land BELOW sea level in a hurricanes path....
and these people vote...
We the People are in trouble.

[doctorj2u]

I am a native New Orleanian still living in the area. I don't expect one thing from this country or its citizens. You have proven to me long ago that we don't matter to any of you. You abandoned us and then, even worse, told us we do not deserve help. In so many words you told us we DESERVED the tragedy. I lost my country in Katrina and I mourn that loss to this day. Let us see if the judiciary is as corrupt and incompetent as the US government is.

[mollydtt]

I'm no genius, but in spite of the fact that I have always loved New Orleans, I would never live somewhere where the delta is no longer supplied with silt, where you have to look *up* to see the ships passing by (i.e. you live *below* sea level, and you have to hope and pray that the electricity is working during a driving rainstorm, in order for the pumps to get the water out fast enough.

No thank you. I've watched documentaries (pre-Katrina) where Gulf Coast families who have lost everything to a hurricane are 'heroically' rebuilding in the same spot they have rebuilt in several times already. That isn't heroic--that is another insurance disaster waiting to happen, either this year or next year.

That is just not a good idea. No matter what humans do, they can't overcome mother nature, and New Orleans has always been a disaster waiting to happen. The only part of New Orleans that isn't built on marsh and interfering with silt depositing on the non-existing delta --is the French Quarter. Everything else is just man's folly, and mother nature will always win eventually.

I live in Texas, and that whole Galveston area should be made into a wetland, barrier island area. People were never supposed to live there, yet they do. They will rebuild and in a few years, they will get wiped out again, too.

Bottom line--Do you really want more levees?

[roach9703]

Katrina was a storm of unprecedented fury. The total duration of intensity may have even exceeded the hurricane of 1900. This was a broad storm whose cumulative effects were enormous. Now George W. Bush was the master of administrative screw-ups. However, the law suit is beyond silly. Louisiana, Lawyer's Paradise?

[J_G_H]

I have mixed feelings. Some of the issues with the Corps of Engineers projects have been known for atwhile. On the other hand, I suspect that many of the people in the suit voted for politicians who pushed low taxes/small government, thus limiting the ability of the Corps to fix the mistakes. In fact, if it were not for government tinkering with the Mississippi, the river would have shifted course decades ago, leaving New Orleans with a rapidly sitling port and no business to speak of.

[nor-one]

The only part of NO that didn't flood was the section that the French had established as NO. The idiots, morons and shallow gene pool results that came later spread it out like it is today. Why don't you get over having the French tell your idiot president to go get stuffed on Iraq. You built it - either fix it or bury it!! Stop blaming everybody else for your own messes!

[nolapearl]

I find the few comments that I have read on this post interesting and ill-informed. My husband and I live in New Orleans (and our area didn't flood). New Orleans is NOT on the gulf coast (look at a map). Like most of the people in the world, many residents here did not "choose" to live here. They were born and raised here. Many of them are poor, as tourism is the major industry in the city, so they don't have the luxury that you have, to pick up and move to another city. Many of them don't have cars and many of them are elderly. They didn't build houses on the coast. The Army Corps of Engineers and the oil and gas companies brought the coastline much closer to the city by dredging canals and building MR GO. In doing this, they brought salt water (the gulf) into fresh water marshlands, killing the trees and marsh, plant and animal life (and hundreds of thousands if not millions of acres of protection) along the way. The coast of LA loses land mass the size of Manhattan island every ten months. And for the person(jennifer-marie) who is naive enough to think that the government doesn't help out earthquake victims or other victims of disaster in other states: the flooding of New Orleans was NOT a natural disaster - it was man-made - and even the Army Corps of Engineers has finally admitted it and taken responsibility for it and secondly, you should do your homeowork before making such an ill-informed statement. The people of CA do scream for assistance from the government after earthquakes as do the people in North Dakota when it floods or Tennessee when there is a tornado - and they get it. Why do you think FEMA exists? And when tragedy visits your life, I hope people are more understanding toward you than you seem to be about others. And to the person who said it was the Democrats in Congress who built MR GO during Johnson's administration, you're right and they are the same Southern Democrats who became Republicans because Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. And I don't believe any of them are still in office today.

[Newster1]

Yup, always looking to BLAME someone, forget that this city is like 10 FEET below sea level, FORGET that hurricanes and flood surges are and will be a fact and get WORSE, FORGET the sheer stupidity of levies and flood walls as a concept are totally FLAWED, forget about people having something like basic flood insurance in a flood zone!

They are living in the bottom drain of a bathtub and this disaster should have been the wakeup call to MOVE out because this will happen again.

[jennifer-marie]

The devastation and destruction of hurricanes, especially Katrina, is a tragedy for everyone affected and I sincerely hope that everyone who survived has been able to move forward with their lives in a positive way.

That being said, I have limited sympathy for people who live in places like Florida and Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi, and all the other states that are prime real estate for hurricanes. When was the last time you heard someone from California crying and seeking something from the government because an earthquake damaged their home? Or when have you heard someone from Oklahoma or Kansas demanding the government take responsibility for a tornado destroying their town?

I firmly understand that if I ever choose to move to New England and open up a small shop in an old tourist town like I want to, that I will be subjected to bitter winters and Nor'easters that can destroy all I own. That is a risk that I have to be willing to take to live where I want to live.

These people took the same risks by choosing to live where they chose to live.

What happened was tragic and devastating and can change a person's entire life, and their outlook on life, but it's not the government's fault that a hurricane formed and hit land.

One day, everyone will finally realize that HUMANS are not in control of NATURE - NATURE is in control of EVERYTHING.

[healthcareauditor]

BBPKR, instead of slamming people for their "inferred" beliefs, why not come up with something constructive to add to the conversation.

The creation of the waterway had nothing to do with who was in the white house, who controlled congress or the race of the people living in New Orleans. Any time man messes with nature, unplanned consequences can occur. Whether the channel existed or not, the outcome may have been the same. Any city located near a major body of water can be subject to storm damage. I was in Annapolis,k Marylansd during Hurricaine Isabel a few years ago. NOAA said the storm would pass to our east, off the atlantic coast so the front would push the water to the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. People on the western shore didn't pack sandbags or take any precautions because they thought they were going to experience a "blow out." At the time, I was living on my sailboat, and took plenty of precautions (extra anchors set, multiple redundant dock lines, etc). Instead of going to the east of Annapolis, the storm came strait up the Chesapeake Bay. Instead of a 5 foot ultra-low tide, we were greeted by a 6-9 foot above normal high tide that took over a day to subside. Most homes and most of the boats moored around me were lost. My point is only that man can't always overcome nature. We can try, but we'll always be disappointed.

Moving New Orleans would be a good idea. On an incredibly smaller scale, the US Park Service relocated the Cape Hattaras lighthouse. The land under it was eroding into the Atlantic Ocean. They could have tried to temporarily reinforce the land and applying bandaids, but the park service and corps of engineers made the decision to move the historic lighthouse inland to prevent the problem from happening again. Why couldn't we move New Orleans to a safer location? It's only a matter of time before natural erosion makes the area uninhabitable. The east coast of the US and parts of the gulf of mexico have been undergoing constant erosion since the continent drifted off from europe.

[Zowwyy]

I agree with Rowdy... they lived in a place hurricanes LOVE to hit. They took the chance living there. Now that a Cat 5 storm blew in and wiped them out they need to blame someone else. Typical
News flash idiots... avoid tornado alley... avoid the gulf coast for hurricanes.. avoid California for earthquakes, fires, and landslides.....

[govtguy]

You don't actually think that the US govt would even consider for a hairs breadth moment that they could have been (or were) wrong in this project? This made-for-TV court room farce will drag for years, nothing will get repaired (or replaced), and those who really need the help, will be allowed and encouraged to either abandon all claims or to die off. Face it, the US govt messed up and Katrina was the disaster-made-to-order to prove it.....and you thought just FEMA was a disaster.....wait and watch what the Corp of Engineers will do !

[bbpkr]

weedapeapl & azirine, you're both typical of the rightwingnut Repug CONservatives I see in comment threads in all of the 5 media-outlets I monitor frequently.
No matter the subject, your monotonous dirges attacking democrats and those you deem to be liberals or socialists are generically interchangeable. No doubt most of you
are Rushie / Hannith inspired "true believers".
Your BS can't obscure the Plain Facts: Your Idol Shrub and his criminal cohorts, with a rubber-stamp Repug congress, drove this Nation into near -Economic Ruin. and you Enablers who cheered them on are just as Culpable to the Sabotage as your Masters.

[glidescube]

The Army and it's project answer to congress not the President so LBJ had no real choice but to sit back and watch it be built. The President can no more stop a project of that magnitude than he can change the design of the Army's uniform.

However FEMA does answer to the President that and that is what Bush bungled.

People need to accept the reality that Bush is not a very intelligent man and I'm being quite sincere. He really was a simpleton that was in way over his head against opponents that here significantly smarter than he.

[oldpoet-2009]

The conveniently neglect to mention that this was done ON LBJ'S WATCH!!!
That's right, folks. ANOTHER DEMOCRAT-MADE DISASTER!
Posted by weedapeapl

And the one giving the orders was Lyndon B. Johnson - a DEMOCRAT.
Posted by weedapeapl
------------
WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!!

The MRGO authorization was provided by the Congress of the United States in the River and Harbor Act of 1956. Construction of the channel began in 1958 and the channel was completed in 1968. ALL REPEAT ALL legislation, ALL of the designs and specifications as well as the first 3 years of the work were completed under President Dwight D, Eisenhower, a 2 term REPUBLICAN president. Democratic Presidents Kennedy and Johnson inherited this boondoggle and had absolutely NO say in the project. Do your homework before you point fingers weedapeapl!

Can I now sue the Bush administration for being traumatized and for inhaling toxic debris on September 11, 2001 cause it happened on his watch.... That's right folks, ANOTHER ONE OF MANY MANY REPUBLICANT DISASTERS!

[weedapeapl]

The head of the COE in the 60's was appointed by Dwight David Eisenhower not Lyndon Johnson. And it really doesn't matter who appointed who,
Posted by thadius5 at 7:15 PM : Apr 20, 2009

YAH, because it was THE PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON giving the orders.

No matter who appointed him, he had to obey Johnson.

So WHY BRING IT UP?????

[thadius5]

The head of the COE in the 60's was appointed by Dwight David Eisenhower not Lyndon Johnson. And it really doesn't matter who appointed who, the responsibility lies with the COE. The problem with the Go Channel has be a point of contention for years. Several reports over the last 10 years have predicted the disaster that came with Katrina. Forewarned should have meant forearmed.

[weedapeapl]

The job of the COE was to straighten channels and waterways. Their goal was to disregard the sponge effect of wetlands and build, instead, levees and dams to contain the peaks on hydrographs. They did the job they were told to do.
Posted by cattlekate1 at 5:29 PM : Apr 20, 2009

And the one giving the orders was Lyndon B. Johnson - a DEMOCRAT.

[weedapeapl]

like Holland.
Posted by dnamj at 5:38 PM : Apr 20, 2009

Holland doesn't blame Bush when LBJ's inadequate levee system fails.