Katrina "Victims" Sue For Trillions In Claim
USA Today
January 7, 2008
Katrina Victims Swamp Corps For Trillions In Claims
247 filings seek $1 billion or more
By Brad Heath, USA Today
WASHINGTON - Tens of thousands of people whose property was destroyed when Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed New Orleans' protective levees have filed claims demanding the government pay astronomical sums that would be enough money to make multimillionaires of everyone in Louisiana.
The Army Corps of Engineers received 247 claims from residents, businesses and government agencies seeking $1 billion or more, according to the agency. That's the tip of a very large iceberg: The corps, which designed and built the city's storm protections, faces more than 489,000 claims for the damage and deaths in the post-Katrina flooding.
The claims are so massive the government could never hope to pay them. Rather, they are the hopeful - and at times inflated - requests of people reeling from losses.
Just the top filings add up to so much money that the entire annual output of the nation's economy - $12 trillion - couldn't pay them off, according to the corps' listing. It is the first public accounting of the scale of damage demands the corps faces.
"That's totally off-the-wall," says Ashton O'Dwyer, a New Orleans lawyer handling some of the claims. He says everyone making a claim ultimately must provide evidence to back it up, "and we won't know the real total until that happens."
By comparison, the Louisiana Recovery Authority estimates that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 together caused about $100 billion in physical damage statewide. The federal government already dedicated more than $130 billion on recovery from the hurricanes.
Most of the claims allege that the corps is to blame for the levee failures that inundated huge sections of New Orleans. A claim form is the first step in seeking compensation.
One claim alone seeks $3 quadrillion in damages, almost all of it for personal injury. That's a 3 followed by 15 zeros - about 250 times the nation's gross domestic product. A resident of a section of New Orleans that includes the hard-hit Lower 9th Ward filed another claim for $6 trillion, double the annual federal budget.
"We sort of take it all in stride," says Angela Drinkwitz, the corps' claims administrator. "We don't say there's no way this could be true."
Most claims should be filed within two years, but Drinkwitz says new claims are still trickling in.
Neither the corps nor the Justice Department would say whether they intend to pay any of the damage claims, how they will be processed or when a decision could be made. Already, at least 300 people also have sued the government over levee failures, Justice Department spokesman Andrew Ames says.
"If they'd built the levees right, they wouldn't have this problem," says Daniel Becnel, a Reserve, La., lawyer representing some of those suing the government.
The corps would not identify the people filing large claims. Officials still must sift through more than 2 tons of paperwork to weed out duplicates.
Flood of paperwork
Damage claims against the Army Corps of Engineers after levees failed:
*Total number: 489,000
*Claims for $1 billion or more: 247
*Largest: $3 quadrillion
*Largest government or business claim: $586 billion
January 7, 2008
Katrina Victims Swamp Corps For Trillions In Claims
247 filings seek $1 billion or more
By Brad Heath, USA Today
WASHINGTON - Tens of thousands of people whose property was destroyed when Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed New Orleans' protective levees have filed claims demanding the government pay astronomical sums that would be enough money to make multimillionaires of everyone in Louisiana.
The Army Corps of Engineers received 247 claims from residents, businesses and government agencies seeking $1 billion or more, according to the agency. That's the tip of a very large iceberg: The corps, which designed and built the city's storm protections, faces more than 489,000 claims for the damage and deaths in the post-Katrina flooding.
The claims are so massive the government could never hope to pay them. Rather, they are the hopeful - and at times inflated - requests of people reeling from losses.
Just the top filings add up to so much money that the entire annual output of the nation's economy - $12 trillion - couldn't pay them off, according to the corps' listing. It is the first public accounting of the scale of damage demands the corps faces.
"That's totally off-the-wall," says Ashton O'Dwyer, a New Orleans lawyer handling some of the claims. He says everyone making a claim ultimately must provide evidence to back it up, "and we won't know the real total until that happens."
By comparison, the Louisiana Recovery Authority estimates that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 together caused about $100 billion in physical damage statewide. The federal government already dedicated more than $130 billion on recovery from the hurricanes.
Most of the claims allege that the corps is to blame for the levee failures that inundated huge sections of New Orleans. A claim form is the first step in seeking compensation.
One claim alone seeks $3 quadrillion in damages, almost all of it for personal injury. That's a 3 followed by 15 zeros - about 250 times the nation's gross domestic product. A resident of a section of New Orleans that includes the hard-hit Lower 9th Ward filed another claim for $6 trillion, double the annual federal budget.
"We sort of take it all in stride," says Angela Drinkwitz, the corps' claims administrator. "We don't say there's no way this could be true."
Most claims should be filed within two years, but Drinkwitz says new claims are still trickling in.
Neither the corps nor the Justice Department would say whether they intend to pay any of the damage claims, how they will be processed or when a decision could be made. Already, at least 300 people also have sued the government over levee failures, Justice Department spokesman Andrew Ames says.
"If they'd built the levees right, they wouldn't have this problem," says Daniel Becnel, a Reserve, La., lawyer representing some of those suing the government.
The corps would not identify the people filing large claims. Officials still must sift through more than 2 tons of paperwork to weed out duplicates.
Flood of paperwork
Damage claims against the Army Corps of Engineers after levees failed:
*Total number: 489,000
*Claims for $1 billion or more: 247
*Largest: $3 quadrillion
*Largest government or business claim: $586 billion
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It doesn't hurt to dream.......[:X]...Loko [:D] 0 -
New Orleans Went Under--A Black Man's Comments
Carefully read the whole article. You'll be amazed at this guy! I looked at his picture and read it with my mouth hanging open. He says things here that no white man could ever write and keep his job as a writer .
By
Say a hurricane is about to destroy the city you live in. Two questions:
What would you do?
What would you do if you were black?
Sadly, the two questions don't have the same answer.
To the first: Most of us would take our families out of that city quickly to protect them from danger. Then, able-bodied men would return to help others in need, as wives and others cared for children, elderly, infirm and the like.
For better or worse, Hurricane Katrina has told us the answer to the second question. If you're black and a hurricane is about to destroy your city, you'll probably wait for the government to save you.
This was not always the case. Prior to 40 years ago, such a pathetic performance by the black community in a time of crisis would have been inconceivable. The first response would have come from black men. They would take care of their families, bring them to safety, and then help the rest of the community. Then local government would come in.
No longer. When 75 percent of New Orleans residents had left the city, it was primarily immoral, welfare-pampered blacks that stayed behind and waited for the government to bail them out. This, as we know, did not turn out good results.
Enter Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan. Jackson and Farrakhan laid blame on "racist" President Bush. Farrakhan actually proposed the idea that the government blew up a levee so as to kill blacks and save whites. The two demanded massive governmental spending to rebuild New Orleans, above and beyond the federal government's proposed $60 billion. Not only that, these two were positioning themselves as the gatekeepers to supervise the dispersion of funds. Perfect: Two of the most dishonest elite blacks in America, "overseeing" billions of dollars. I wonder where that money will end up.
Of course, if these two were really serious about laying blame on government, they should blame the local one. Responsibility to perform legally and practically fell first on the mayor of New Orleans. We are now all familiar with Mayor Ray Nagin, the black who likes to yell at President Bush for failing to do Nagin's job. The facts, unfortunately, do not support Nagin's wailing. As the Washington Times puts it, "Recent reports show [Nagin] failed to follow through on his own city's emergency response plan, which acknowledged that thousands of the city's poorest residents would have no way to evacuate the city."
One wonders how there was "no way" for these people to evacuate the city. We have photographic evidence telling us otherwise. You've probably seen it by now: the photo showing 2,000 parked school buses, unused and underwater. How much planning does it require to put people on a bus and leave town, Mayor Nagin?
Instead of doing the obvious, Mayor Nagin (with no positive contribution from Gov. Kathleen Blanco, the other major leader vested with responsibility to address the hurricane disaster) loaded remaining New Orleans residents into the Superdome and the city's convention center. We know how that plan turned out.
About five years ago, in a debate before the National Association of Black Journalists, I stated that if whites were to just leave the United States and let blacks run the country, they would turn America into a ghetto within 10 years. The audience, shall we say, disagreed with me strongly. Now I have to disagree with me. I gave blacks too much credit. It took a mere three days for blacks to turn the Superdome and the convention center into ghettos, rampant with theft, rape and murder.
President Bush is not to blame for the rampant immorality of blacks. Had New Orleans' black community taken action, most would have been out of harm's way. But most were too lazy, immoral and trifling to do anything productive for themselves.
All Americans must tell blacks this truth. It was blacks' moral poverty, not their material poverty, that cost them dearly in New Orleans. Farrakhan, Jackson, and other race hustlers are to be repudiated for they will only perpetuate this problem by stirring up hatred and applauding moral corruption. New Orleans, to the extent it is to be rebuilt, should be remade into a dependency-free, morally strong city where corruption is opposed and success is applauded. Blacks are obligated to help themselves and not depend on the government to care for them. We are all obligated to tell them so.
The Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson is founder and president of BOND, the Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny, and author of "Scam: How the Black Leadership Exploits Black America."0 -
Great article zebra. Sad, but true. 0 -
Rain on 'em. There should have been no one in New Orleans who didn't want to be there when Katrina hit. They had a full day's worth of warning. A reasonably healthy adult can walk 10-15 miles in a day, and that is far enough to be safe. Maybe not totally dry, but safe. 0 -
How can anyone expect Bush or anybody else to control Mother Nature? Then, build a town BELOW sea level right at the oceans edge and then bitch when water takes its rightful place! Galveston Texas is another prime example. They are building huge hotels there that will someday get hit and destroyed. The government isn't making them build there so why should the government-taxpayers-be responsible for natures damages? 0 -
The US Government owns and maintains the levee systems in SE Louisiana.
The US Government defines which areas are prone to flooding through FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration) and denotes areas as flood hazard or non-flood hazard areas on their Flood Insurance Rate Maps.
Most of the area surrounding the City of New Orleans are within a "bowl" that is defined by the levee system.
Nearly half, if not more, of this area inside the "bowl" was determined by FEMA to not be within a flood hazard area and as such did not mandate, nor recommend, flood insurance to people who invested their life savings to be home owners.
Many people carried flood insurance and are to this day still fighting with their insurance carriers to have their claims settled.
The Federal Government built the levees and drained the swamps in order to provide land for homes and businesses to make use of the Port of New Orleans and the Natural resources found in South Louisiana.
The Federal Government, through the US Army Corps of Engineers, had faulty designed flood walls constructed along the 17th Street Canal, which failed and flooded the Lakeview area of New Orleans.
The City of New Orleans, and surrounding areas of Louisiana, survived the almost direct hit of Katrina, what they did not survive was the failure of the US Federally owned, operated and maintained levee system.
Yes, I get your point, it is all the people's fault.[V]
DSM0 -
The biggest cause for failure of levees tends to be poor maintenance and events in excess of design. It is my understanding that the latter was a primary cause of failure in NO. If I recall the levee was built to withstand a class 3 storm and was hit by a class 5. Now maybe it was under designed by the CORP but generally flood protection systems are a compromise agreed upon by the local community. Cost, environmental impact, utility and others are factored in. FEMA will ALWAYS state that an event larger than what it is designed for is possible. No doubt maintenance was also a contributing factor because no matter who is in charge of maintenance it is never what it should be.
Dispite our governments best(or even worst) effort slime happens. If you don't want to risk being flooded then don't live near the ocean, rivers or lakes. If you don't want to be hit by a tornado don't live in tornado country. If you don't want to be effected by a blizzard don't live in blizzard country. Life has risks. All we can do is choose those we are willing to live with.
Grand Forks ND is another example of this.
Our community is looking at flood protection and the biggest hangup is cost.We will likely end up with a system that will take care of 99% of the events we have but some day it will likely be topped or fail and many people will not be happy about a compromise made on their behalf. We have also been informed that our community will be wholely responsible for the maintenance.0 -
This flooding came as no surprise to anyone, including the residents.
Such inundation in the case of a direct hit on the city had been predicted by numerous groups for years. The local paper even ran a story a year before with step by step graphics showing flooding that almost exactly mirrored what happened during Katrina. This wasn't a maybe situation. If such a storm hit it was predicted to be a disaster on the scale of the World Trade Center.
The city of NOLA's own published disaster plans, written with FEMA's name all over it, called for near evacuation of the entire area within the "bowl" in the face of a large hurrican making a direct hit.
I don't anything about FEMA's classification maps of the area, but it's not as if this flooding wasn't foreseen and widely discussed for years prior to this storm. All residents had been told to evacuate the area if a large hurricane approached, even by FEMA. That's a clue that property was in danger.0 -
Two points:
New Orleans did not receive a direct hit by Katrina, the Mississippi Gulf Coast did.
Save Chalmette, near the M.R.G.O., which is in the process of being closed down, the levees were not "over-topped" by surge waters, they were breached.
DSM0 -
And why did they take the money and build things for the new casino and not the up grade on the levees. Why did the busses sit and get flooded and why and why. Why did everyone wait on the Government instead of trying to take care of their families and then go steal everything in site. Pass the buck long enough and it will sound like someones else fault, sit on your butt and get what you deserved. Mother nature will take back what shouldn't have been there. The Residents have just much guilt as anyone and they haven't learned a thing,right back where they started. IN A BOWL THAT IS SINKING. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by fshfndr
1) Why did everyone wait on the Government instead of trying to take care of their families and then go steal everything in site.
2) Mother nature will take back what shouldn't have been there.
3) The Residents have just much guilt as anyone and they haven't learned a thing,right back where they started. IN A BOWL THAT IS SINKING.
1) Everyone? Not hardly.
2) Yes, but in the meantime it will stay the way it is.
3) Not hardly, not by a long shot.
DSM0 -
3) Not hardly, not by a long shot.
Sorry phideaux, New Orleans is in a bowl, by your own description.
And, it is sinking. Every year it goes down a few more inches.
Sorry, it is a great city and I wish it could be with us forever.0 -
Then why do people in california live there with the earthquakes?
They have no warning but they know they happen. Why do people live
in tornado alley? They have very little warning but they still live
there. Why do people live in the north with the blizzards? They
have warnings but they still live there. Along with other parts
of the country with droughts, floods, fires, and other related disasters. Most people live where they are born, raised and become to love. We started over down here and my thinking was, I was
going to do it with or without any help. I'm sure most other
people would do the same and have in other parts of the country.0 -
There are a few reasons why I don't feel to sorry for Katrina victims. One most of them were trash and have since then kicked where I live (Houston) in the teeth numerous times for us helping them out. Crime has sky rocketed. Screw those pieces of crap they should of let them drown.
Reason two, When Alison hit awhile back my home almost flooded. Since I was born and raised in Alaska and Oregon I didn't know much about flooding. I'd never been in one or had a hurricane or other tropical storm come straight up my tailpipe. That got me to thinking. When I bought my new home I bought near my sister because she didn't even have standing water on the street where she lived while the water was chest deep in the street in my old neighborhood. I see the same stupid people flood every storm that have lived here in Houston their whole lives. The morons just don't learn. Old saying "You can lead the horse to water but you can't make them drink".
They shouldn't have rebuilt like morons with OUR MONEY. They should of left the cess pool underwater. Can you tell I have no love loss for these leechs?0 -
quote:Originally posted by allen griggs
3) Not hardly, not by a long shot.
Sorry phideaux, New Orleans is in a bowl, by your own description.
And, it is sinking. Every year it goes down a few more inches.
Sorry, it is a great city and I wish it could be with us forever.
That is not true.
It is not sinking a few inches per year and my response was directed at the statement, by fishfinder, before his "New Orleans is in a bowl".
DSM0 -
quote:Originally posted by Kodiakk
There are a few reasons why I don't feel to sorry for Katrina victims. One most of them were trash and have since then kicked where I live (Houston) in the teeth numerous times for us helping them out. Crime has sky rocketed. Screw those pieces of crap they should of let them drown.
Reason two, When Alison hit awhile back my home almost flooded. Since I was born and raised in Alaska and Oregon I didn't know much about flooding. I'd never been in one or had a hurricane or other tropical storm come straight up my tailpipe. That got me to thinking. When I bought my new home I bought near my sister because she didn't even have standing water on the street where she lived while the water was chest deep in the street in my old neighborhood. I see the same stupid people flood every storm that have lived here in Houston their whole lives. The morons just don't learn. Old saying "You can lead the horse to water but you can't make them drink".
They shouldn't have rebuilt like morons with OUR MONEY. They should of left the cess pool underwater. Can you tell I have no love loss for these leechs?
I am not even going to waste my time trying to have a discussion with you over anything you just posted.
DSM0 -
What do you expect from parasites??[}:)] 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Night Stalker
One claim alone seeks $3 quadrillion in damages, [/b]
Wow, that's almost as Rich as the Pope!0 -
quote:Originally posted by alledan
What do you expect from parasites??[}:)]
Do tell, what "PARASITES" are you speaking of?[:(!][:(!][:(!]
DSM0 -
Yeah, just who you callin' "Parasites" 0 -
quote:Originally posted by phideaux4886
quote:Originally posted by allen griggs
3) Not hardly, not by a long shot.
Sorry phideaux, New Orleans is in a bowl, by your own description.
And, it is sinking. Every year it goes down a few more inches.
Sorry, it is a great city and I wish it could be with us forever.
That is not true.
It is not sinking a few inches per year and my response was directed at the statement, by fishfinder, before his "New Orleans is in a bowl".
DSM
My bad. It is only sinking one inch per year
Study finds rapid pre-Katrina sinking in New Orleans
Monday, June 12, 2006; Posted: 3:08 p.m. EDT (19:08 GMT)
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(CNN) -- Parts of New Orleans sank rapidly in the three years leading up to Hurricane Katrina, which might have made the already low-lying city even more vulnerable, a new study found.
That may explain why some levees failed during Katrina and raises serious concerns about the future of the city, according to researchers.
The study, released Wednesday by the journal Nature, found that some areas subsided 28.6 millimeters (about 1 1/8 inch) per year between 2002 and 2005. The average decrease was about 5.6 millimeters (almost one-quarter inch).
The area around the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet shipping canal in St. Bernard and Orleans Parishes sunk 20 millimeters (more than three-quarters of an inch) per year during that period, according to the study.0 -
That's the American way, blame everyone else. It's the government's fault, it's the white man's fault, it's FEMA's fault. It could never be MY fault for not moving further inland knowing my house is below sea level, or not leaving when you know a week in advance that a hurricane is coming.
The stayed because when they said " a hurricane is coming " they thought it was this kind of hurricane[:)]
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No, they thought the Miami Hurricanes were coming to play Tulane in the Sugar Bowl. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by phideaux4886
quote:Originally posted by alledan
What do you expect from parasites??[}:)]
Do tell, what "PARASITES" are you speaking of?[:(!][:(!][:(!]
DSM
The same trash that has sky rocketed Houstons crime level after taking the parasites in. The same parasites I watch murdering and raping every night on the news. The same trash to stupid to leave when they say a hurricane coming up their tailpipe. The same kind of parasites from New Orleans that were using debit cards given to them to go to strip clubs and buy Gucci purses.
http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_2_houston.html
http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon2006-01-04ng.html
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_dmn_heros_task.htm
Just to list a few articles proving my point. Keep making excuses for these idiots so they can continue to be idiots on our dime. I've had several encounters with them and not one of them were pleasant. Each one stunk with a you owe me attitude.0
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