The Times-Picayune's Susan Finch reports in "Judge gives go-ahead to MRGO suit":
"A federal court judge in New Orleans cleared the way Friday for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to face trial next month in a lawsuit that claims the agency's failure to heed environmental laws in building and maintaining the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet caused environmental damage that led to massive flooding in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish during Hurricane Katrina.
The case, which Judge Stanwood Duval is scheduled to hear without a jury starting April 20, was filed by WDSU-TV news anchorman Norman Robinson and five other plaintiffs whose homes or businesses in eastern New Orleans, the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish were swamped during the August 2005 storm."
...
The suit alleges that the corps' negligence destroyed protective wetlands and turned the shipping channel into a speedway for Katrina's storm surge.
The MRGO, which offered a shortcut for large ships between the Gulf of Mexico and the Industrial Canal, opened in mid-1963. Almost two years later, Hurricane Betsy hit in September 1965, flooding parts of the city, including Gentilly and the Lower 9th Ward, as well as Arabi and Chalmette.
Last summer, the corps deauthorized the MRGO as a shipping channel. Work began in January to close the MRGO."
The case, which Judge Stanwood Duval is scheduled to hear without a jury starting April 20, was filed by WDSU-TV news anchorman Norman Robinson and five other plaintiffs whose homes or businesses in eastern New Orleans, the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish were swamped during the August 2005 storm."
...
The suit alleges that the corps' negligence destroyed protective wetlands and turned the shipping channel into a speedway for Katrina's storm surge.
The MRGO, which offered a shortcut for large ships between the Gulf of Mexico and the Industrial Canal, opened in mid-1963. Almost two years later, Hurricane Betsy hit in September 1965, flooding parts of the city, including Gentilly and the Lower 9th Ward, as well as Arabi and Chalmette.
Last summer, the corps deauthorized the MRGO as a shipping channel. Work began in January to close the MRGO."
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