NYT: Of course the suit was thrown out
Source: New York Times
From an editorial on the recent dismissal of the suit against the Army Core of Engineers for the levee failure:
If Judge Duval’s conclusion provided no comfort, his language did, echoing in legal terminology what has been strong criticism of the corps by activists, politicians and the local media.
“While the United States government is immune for legal liability for the defalcations alleged herein, it is not free, nor should it be, from posterity’s judgment concerning its failure to accomplish what was its task,” the judge wrote. “This story — 50 years in the making — is heart-wrenching. Millions of dollars were squandered in building a levee system with respect to these outfall canals which was known to be inadequate by the corps’s own calculations.”
Though the ruling spotlighted many missteps by the corps over the years, it made little of other possible factors, including culpability of former local officials overseeing levees and drainage, and particularly their rejection of the corps’s original plan for floodgates on the drainage canals that so devastated the city.
Supporters of the claimants applauded Judge Duval’s language, suggesting that it might yet fuel their cause. “What we’ve had so far is just a suspicion,” said Joseph Bruno, a lawyer in the case. “You now have a U.S. federal district judge who’s had a chance to evaluate the facts and draw legal conclusions. 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.’ ”
Sandy Rosenthal of the activist group Levees.org said: “Clearly Judge Duval is frustrated by what he had to do. It’s outrageous these levees were fragile. He and I agree the corps was responsible for the failure of the levees. It’s a positive thing that Judge Duval outlined all those things in his statements.”
Reread that paragraph on the local officials who were also culpable - it's not so easy to point the finger just at the COE, is it? There were hundreds of people who let the levees fail, and most of them will quietly, and happily, get away with it.
Here's hoping that karmic boomerang whacks them in their collective asses at some point.
Comments
Regarding spotlighting of the local's role in the flooding.....
Actually, Judge Duval devoted many pages to the locals' involvement in the proposed floodgates during the years 1966 – 1987. Judge Duval states clearly that the final decision to increase the height of the canal walls over the original proposal for flood gates came about through negotiation, and not rejection. This because the locals were extremely worried about flooding from rainwater if the floodgates were closed. There had been no storm surge in that area of the city for 150 years but in just the past dozen years there were 10 flooding events from rainfall. Drainage issues was something - lamented Duval - the corps did not concern itself with.
Further, when the corps finally elected to raise the canal walls, the agency never raised any concerns that the heightened walls were fragile.
The false notion that the locals "forced" the corps to abandon their original proposal to build floodgates is one currently being aggressively perpetuated by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The corps is trying to re-write history.
Posted by: HoppinHill in New Orleans | February 5, 2008 07:36 AM