[StBernard] Trial against corps over Katrina flooding ends

[Westley Annis]

Trial against corps over Katrina flooding ends
By CAIN BURDEAU - 3 hours ago 

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A trial against the Army Corps of Engineers for the
flooding of eastern New Orleans, the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish
during Hurricane Katrina ended Thursday after four weeks of testimony.

Now, U.S. District Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr. will take the case under
consideration and rule sometime in the coming weeks or months.

The lawsuit was the first major case against the federal government over
Katrina flooding to go to trial. Much is at stake because the fate of more
than 120,000 other claims by individuals, businesses and government bodies
hinge on Duval's ruling. The claims amount to billions of dollars in
damages.

The suit claims the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, a 76-mile shipping
channel the Army Corps dug in the late 1950s as a shortcut between New
Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico, led to the destruction of the environment
southeast of New Orleans and the devastating flooding during Katrina.

A decision rests with Duval because a jury cannot try a case against the
federal government. Duval has not indicated how or when he might rule.

The trial has been an in-depth exploration of conflicting expert testimony
about highly technical issues - dense with debate about soil types,
hydrodynamic modeling, differential equations, slope stability, lateral
displacement, factors of safety, still water levels and the physics of wave
action.

Now, Duval will have to make sense of divergent scientific and engineering
analyses and decide one of the most unusual legal cases ever brought against
the federal government: Was the Army Corps at fault for the flooding of New
Orleans?

At the close of the trial Thursday, Duval acknowledged the difficult task
ahead of him.

"This political science major is going to have to go through this and do the
best job I can, which I will do," Duval said. "We have had some very smart
people testify here over the last month and the court has been very
impressed with the caliber of expert witness."

The plaintiffs are asking for damages between $300,000 and $400,000 for each
individual. If the corps is held liable, the plaintiffs lawyers said they
would like Congress to set up a compensation fund similar to one set up for
victims of the 1974 break of Idaho's Teton Dam for the tens of thousands of
other people with Katrina claims.

"There have been cases like this," said Gerald Galloway, a levee expert and
civil engineering professor at the University of Maryland, "but nothing on
the scope of the MRGO because you're bringing in all the losses of New
Orleans."