[StBernard] Hundreds scramble to beat deadline for filing Katrina claim

[Westley Annis]

Hundreds scramble to beat deadline for filing Katrina claim
2/26/2007, 5:43 p.m. CT
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN 
The Associated Press    

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Hundreds of residents scrambled Monday to beat a deadline
for filing court claims against the federal government and U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers for damage resulting from the failure of levees and flood walls
following Hurricane Katrina.

The corps says Thursday at 4 p.m. is the deadline for it to receive the
Katrina litigation claims at its Uptown office. Roughly 30,000 residents
already had filed a claim as of late last week, but Thursday's deadline
surprised many more people whose homes and businesses were damaged or
destroyed in the flooding following the storm.

On Friday, lawyers representing thousands of plaintiffs accused federal
officials of reneging on an agreement to set Aug. 29, 2007 - the two-year
anniversary of Katrina - as the deadline for claims to be filed or else risk
exclusion from class-action litigation.

Joe Bruno, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, said the U.S. Department of
Justice stunned his legal team this week by informing them that certain
claims must be filed by this week, 18 months after the storm.

On Monday, Bruno asked a federal judge to consider postponing the deadline
until after the court decides whether to certify a class action against the
corps and federal government.

Bruno asked U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval to hold a hearing on his
request "because there is much anguish and uncertainty among all Hurricane
Katrina victims concerning their rights."

"The court can bring a sense of calm by deciding plaintiffs motion right
away," Bruno wrote.

Duval didn't immediately rule on Bruno's request.

On Monday, meanwhile, a steady procession of people stopped by the corps'
Leake Avenue office to drop off their claims. Charles Brown, 47, said he
didn't know about the deadline until Sunday.

"A lot of people aren't going to get their claims in," said Brown, who has
been living in a government-issued trailer since his Gentilly home was
damaged by the Aug. 29, 2005 storm.

To prove that she filed a claim on her mother's behalf, Janet Long, 45, used
the camera in her cellular phone to photograph herself inserting the form in
the drop box.

"It's aggravating, but it's worth it," said Long, whose mother's home in the
city's Lakeview neighborhood was flooded with seven feet of water after the
levees failed.

The corps' drop box will be open this week from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., through
Thursday afternoon. "They are taking a chance if they put it in the mailbox
because it may not get here in time," corps spokesman Vic Harris said.

The failure of the levees has spawned a mountain of litigation in Louisiana.

Earlier this month, a legal team led by Bruno sued the federal government
and Army Corps of Engineers in a lawsuit that alleges flooding during
Katrina was the fault of a corps decision to allow dredging of the 17th
Street Canal.

Also this month, Duval allowed to go forward a suit charging the corps with
liability for flooding of eastern New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish from
the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet. The ship channel, maintained by the
corps, connects New Orleans' inner harbor with the Gulf of Mexico.