Corps' operation of MR-GO doomed homes in St. Bernard, Lower 9th Ward, judge rules
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune
November 19, 2009, 6:00AM

In a groundbreaking decision, a federal judge ruled late Wednesday that the Army Corps of Engineers' mismanagement of maintenance at the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet was directly responsible for flood damage in St. Bernard Parish and the Lower 9th Ward after Hurricane Katrina. mrgo-chalmette.JPGTed Jackson / The Times-PicayuneHundreds of homes fronting the Forty Arpent Canal in Meraux were destroyed or washed away after Hurricane Katrina. The failure of the Corps to recognize the destruction that the MRGO had caused and the potential hazard that it created is clearly negligent on the part of the Corps," said U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. in his ruling. "Furthermore, the Corps not only knew, but admitted by 1988, that the MRGO threatened human life ... and yet it did not act in time to prevent the catastrophic disaster that ensued with the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina."

MORE