Katrina victims win case

摘要

Four years on, and finally some good news for the victims of hurricane Katrina. A judge has ruled that the US federal government was to blame for much of the flooding caused by the 2005 storm, paving the way for billions in payouts.rnThe US government cannot be sued for the failure of flood protection measures, but this case concerns a shipping channel called the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) -nicknamed "Hurricane Highway" -which the plaintiffs claimed exacerbated flooding.rnOn 18 November, Judge Stanwood Duval ruled that negligent maintenance and operation of MRGO by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) "doomed the channel to grow to two to three times its designrnwidth". This destroyed the channel's, banks and increased the severity of its waves, leading to disastrous flooding in St Bernard Parish and the lower Ninth ward, "Science defined the case, this really was a battle of i experts," says Pierce O'Donnetl, lead attorney for the plaintiffs.