Southeast Louisiana is rich in its people, food and traditions. So it's no wonder that people who've had to move away for jobs or other reasons become homesick at this time of year. The Houma today dot com website carries this story about cajuns yearning for home:
Published: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 11:21 a.m.
HOUMA — There’s no place like home for the holidays, and Louisiana natives who’ve moved away for jobs, love and adventure say there are always things that make them blue for the bayou, especially near Christmas.
“I miss the traditions,” said David Chiasson, a former Thibodaux resident. “The nostalgia is hard to get over. There are some things you just take for granted.”
Chiasson, 41, left the swamp for the desert two years ago to move to Phoenix for a job. Thanks to the wonders of modern shipping, the family has taken to ordering things they miss from their home state over the Internet and by phone, like beef jerky from Bourgeois Meat Market in Gray, Community coffee and king cakes.
But there are some things about the bayou that just can’t be replicated.
When Chiasson tried to introduce his new Arizona friends to a south Louisiana tradition, the crawfish boil, he said he was met with challenges and confusion.
Chiasson had 50 pounds of crawfish shipped live by plane from Lafayette to Phoenix and invited his neighbors to a crawfish boil at his house. Stores in Phoenix didn’t carry crawfish pots, so he had one shipped from a Sam’s Club store in Louisiana.
After all that trouble, when his neighbors spied the live crawfish, he said, they were turned off.
“Nobody ate them,” he said. “They said, ‘What are these things?’ I think they didn’t like the fact that they were alive just a few minutes ago.”
Troy LeBoeuf, a former resident of Montegut, Houma and Thibodaux, moved to South Carolina after meeting a girl from Charleston and following her home.
“Halloween night on Bourbon Street in The Famous Door I met a girl and danced until the wee hours of the morning,” LeBoeuf said. The two spent a whirlwind weekend together, and a few days after he dropped her off at the airport, she invited him to come visit her in Charleston. He loved it, and decided to relocate. But, especially this time of year, he finds his mind drifting back to the bayou.
“I miss the Christmas boat parade passing in front my Dad’s house in Montegut,” LeBoeuf said. “Cajun eggnog daiquiris, going from one house to another on Christmas Eve, having snacks and drinks with friends, and most of all, the food.”
The food is one thing most relocated Louisianans mention missing from their lives elsewhere.
“The food is not the same,” said David Toups, a former resident of Thibodaux who now lives in Juneau, Alaska. “They have seafood up here, but it’s bland.”
About a year-and-a-half ago, Toups found himself getting restless at his job at Fort Polk in Leesville and applied to a hospital lab job in Alaska on a whim. He got it, and decided to move.
He acknowledges that living in the cold tundra of Alaska is about as far removed from Louisiana as you can get.
“You don’t have to wish for a white Christmas up here,” he said.
Toups said he misses houses decorated with tons of Christmas lights and popping firecrackers out in the streets with his friends. People in Alaska also enjoy hunting and fishing, he said, but “the people up here bring back moose meat, bear meat and caribou meat.”
When he lived in Thibodaux, he said, during the holidays he and his family would have big get-together. One year he invited a friend from Illinois to join his family during a Louisiana State University football game.
“Boy, he was scared,” Toups said. “Everyone in my family was hooting and hollering at the T.V., even my grandma. I think it was a little too much for him.”
But it’s the packed houses, the gregariousness and the hospitality that many away from the bayou area miss most around Christmas.
“I miss that kind of tradition,” Toups said. In Louisiana, “it’s a little bit more lively. People are a little bit more reserved here,” he said.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
The Winning Attitude
From the NY Times fifthdown blog:
in New Orleans, the Saints are more than a football team. In Central City, they have become a beacon to a community that needs as much hope and positive reinforcement as possible.
For the last 17 years, Saints players have conducted a Thanksgiving program in which players distribute thousands of baskets.
The day after the Tampa Bay game on Nov. 22, 26 Saints players went to the Y.M.C.A. and distributed Thanksgiving baskets.
“The players do a lot of great things with us,” said Douglas Evans.
Evans has been the president and chief executive of the Dryades Y.M.C.A. for the last 39 years.
The Saints helped Dryades organize the midnight basketball program as an anticrime approach in the community to get kids off the street. The Benson Hoops Midnight Basketball program is anchored at the Y.
Evans said that the Saints’ success had generated a winning attitude.
“When you look at a Dallas, the expectation in that community is that they win, when you look at New York, the expectation in that community is that the Yankees win. That in and of itself raises the expectation level of everyone when you are expected to do something.”
The Saints lost their first game of the season on Saturday night, but Evans said the atmosphere surrounding the team continued to be jubilant.
“We’ve already won in the sense that you still have this outpouring inspirational moment in the community,” he said.
“Are we disappointed? Yes. But therein comes the hope and the desire that we will make it to the Super Bowl.”
hattip: Voices of New Orleans blog .
in New Orleans, the Saints are more than a football team. In Central City, they have become a beacon to a community that needs as much hope and positive reinforcement as possible.
For the last 17 years, Saints players have conducted a Thanksgiving program in which players distribute thousands of baskets.
The day after the Tampa Bay game on Nov. 22, 26 Saints players went to the Y.M.C.A. and distributed Thanksgiving baskets.
“The players do a lot of great things with us,” said Douglas Evans.
Evans has been the president and chief executive of the Dryades Y.M.C.A. for the last 39 years.
The Saints helped Dryades organize the midnight basketball program as an anticrime approach in the community to get kids off the street. The Benson Hoops Midnight Basketball program is anchored at the Y.
Evans said that the Saints’ success had generated a winning attitude.
“When you look at a Dallas, the expectation in that community is that they win, when you look at New York, the expectation in that community is that the Yankees win. That in and of itself raises the expectation level of everyone when you are expected to do something.”
The Saints lost their first game of the season on Saturday night, but Evans said the atmosphere surrounding the team continued to be jubilant.
“We’ve already won in the sense that you still have this outpouring inspirational moment in the community,” he said.
“Are we disappointed? Yes. But therein comes the hope and the desire that we will make it to the Super Bowl.”
hattip: Voices of New Orleans blog .
Monday, December 21, 2009
HELP Needed in the Parish
St. Bernard Parish sheriff's detectives are looking for the SCUZZBUCKETS (my word) who stole Christmas from dozens of kids and seniors, in a break-in at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Violet.
The church was preparing to give toys and clothes to 60 children, when someone broke in over the weekend the took everything.
"They actually unwrapped every single gift, and took what they wanted and left very little," said Pastor John Arnone of Lady of Lourdes.
The church had just reopened last month after being shuttered by Hurricane Katrina. Father Arnone said some parishioners took it hard when they came to church Sunday morning and learned of the break-in.
Anyone wanting to help can call the church at (504) 281-2267. Anyone with information about the crime, or wanting to help, can also call the sheriff's office at (504) 271-2501.
Friday, December 18, 2009
An embarassment
A lot of attention has been given to the "Unknown Who Dat" in the two weeks since the Washington Redskins game. Some people have romanticized the fan as the "typical New Orleans Saints Fan" of 40 plus years. I beg to differ. This guy - while a true Saints Fan - is an embarassment. Watch this and decide for yourself
Do you know what the national media is going to do with this? Ugh. The Who Dat Nation deserves better than this. This is the unknown fan's 15 minutes. Call me a snob, but I don't find this man a poster child for the New Orleans Saints Fan.
I like what "Hakim Drops the Ball" has to say at this link .
| The Unknown Who Dat comes to New Orleans |
Do you know what the national media is going to do with this? Ugh. The Who Dat Nation deserves better than this. This is the unknown fan's 15 minutes. Call me a snob, but I don't find this man a poster child for the New Orleans Saints Fan.
I like what "Hakim Drops the Ball" has to say at this link .
Sunday, December 13, 2009
We're not the only mis-pronouncers
A great website that provides the correct prononciation of common words.
examples
100 Most Often Mispronounced Words and Phrases in English Now that Dr. Language has provided a one-stop cure for the plague of misspelling, here are the 100 words most often mispronounced English words ("mispronunciation" among them). There are spelling rules in English even if they are difficult to understand, so pronouncing a word correctly usually does help you spell it correctly. Several common errors are the result of rapid speech, so take your time speaking, correctly enunciating each word. Careful speech and avid reading are the best guides to correct spelling.
Don't say Do Say Comment
ANo: acrossed | Yes: across
It is easy to confuse "across" with "crossed" but better to keep them separate.
No: affidavid | Yes: affidavit
Even if your lawyer's name is ''David,'' he issues affidavits.
No: Old-timer's disease | Yes: Alzheimer's disease
While it is a disease of old-timers, it is named for the German neurologist, Dr. Alois Alzheimer.
No: Antartic | Yes: Antarctic
Just think of an arc of ants (an ant arc) and that should help you keep the [c] in the pronunciation of this word.
No: Artic | Yes: Arctic
Another hard-to-see [c] but it is there.
No: aks | Yes: ask
This mispronunciation has been around for so long (over 1,000 years) that linguist Mark Aronoff thinks we should cherish it as a part of our linguistic heritage. Most of us would give the axe to "aks."
No: athelete, atheletic | Yes: athlete, athletic
Two syllables are enough for "athlete."
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
11 & 0
"You have to give New Orleans credit,” Belichick said. “They were obviously the better team tonight. It wasn’t a competitive game like we thought it would be or like we needed it to be. We got to coach better, we have to play better. We have to do a lot better than we did. … We have to do a lot better to compete with a team of this caliber.”
New England Patriots' Sore Loser Coach
WHO DAT!
How loud was the crowd in the dome? Check it out here!
New England Patriots' Sore Loser Coach
WHO DAT!
How loud was the crowd in the dome? Check it out here!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Plaques of Bay St. Louis Bridge
A few weeks ago we walked the Bay St. Louis Bridge to photograph the bronze plaques. Here's a slideshow.
Six Month Reprieve
A collective sigh is going out all along the Gulf Coast and eastern seaboard.
Today is the end of the 2009 Hurricane Season!
Today is the end of the 2009 Hurricane Season!
A Must See Photo Exhibit
Visual Story of the Lower Mississippi River Delta
The Port of New Orleans will host an exhibit “The End of the Great River: Photographs of the Lower Mississippi River Delta” December 1st through 18th featuring the work of New Orleans-based photographer Matthew White.
The showing of White's work will consist of fine art landscape images of the Mississippi River Delta, from Port Sulphur in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana south to the end of the three passes that drain the river into the Gulf of Mexico: Pass a Loutre; South Pass and Southwest Pass.
This delta-full of history, culture, and industry-is sparsely populated and rarely seen in detail by outsiders, but is a landscape of vast beauty.
Lower Plaquemines Parish was decimated by Hurricane Katrina, and has quite a long history of fighting coastal erosion with other notable storms of the past. The goal of this photo collection is to raise awareness for the unique beauty of this fragile locale through an artist’s eye and to encourage the creation and preservation of images of the Mississippi River Delta and its disappearing habitat for future generations.
Photography for the project began in the spring of 2000, shot on both black and white film and in color digital and has continued to the present day. In this collection, White has shot nearly every named location in lower Plaquemines Parish and has compiled a sizable collection of documentary-style often contemplative photographs of the most remote areas of the parish.
One such location is Pilottown, where the Crescent River Port Pilots’ Association has maintained an outpost for piloting ships for the last 100 years. After it was almost destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, White returned in April 2008 to photograph this one-of-a-kind town, the last manned outpost on the Mississippi River before you reach the Gulf of Mexico. He was able to document a few pilot houses that were being rebuilt, while the remainder of former homes along the river completely vanished.
To see previews of this exhibit, go to this link.
About Matthew White
Matthew White Grand Isle Juried Art Exhibit, The New Orleans Photo Alliance Elemental/Environmental Space Exhibit, and as part of a permanent museum exhibit for Parks Canada in New Brunswick. White is represented by Big Vision Media (www.bigvisionmedia.com).
Sponsored in part by Plaquemines Parish Economic Development, the exhibit is being held in conjunction with PhotoNOLA, an annual showcase of photography in New Orleans. The exhibit is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm in the lobby of the administrative building at the Port of New Orleans. A reception will be held on December 10, 2009 from 4:00 to 6:00 pm and the public is invited to attend.
The Port of New Orleans will host an exhibit “The End of the Great River: Photographs of the Lower Mississippi River Delta” December 1st through 18th featuring the work of New Orleans-based photographer Matthew White.
The showing of White's work will consist of fine art landscape images of the Mississippi River Delta, from Port Sulphur in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana south to the end of the three passes that drain the river into the Gulf of Mexico: Pass a Loutre; South Pass and Southwest Pass.
This delta-full of history, culture, and industry-is sparsely populated and rarely seen in detail by outsiders, but is a landscape of vast beauty.
Lower Plaquemines Parish was decimated by Hurricane Katrina, and has quite a long history of fighting coastal erosion with other notable storms of the past. The goal of this photo collection is to raise awareness for the unique beauty of this fragile locale through an artist’s eye and to encourage the creation and preservation of images of the Mississippi River Delta and its disappearing habitat for future generations.
Photography for the project began in the spring of 2000, shot on both black and white film and in color digital and has continued to the present day. In this collection, White has shot nearly every named location in lower Plaquemines Parish and has compiled a sizable collection of documentary-style often contemplative photographs of the most remote areas of the parish.
One such location is Pilottown, where the Crescent River Port Pilots’ Association has maintained an outpost for piloting ships for the last 100 years. After it was almost destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, White returned in April 2008 to photograph this one-of-a-kind town, the last manned outpost on the Mississippi River before you reach the Gulf of Mexico. He was able to document a few pilot houses that were being rebuilt, while the remainder of former homes along the river completely vanished.
To see previews of this exhibit, go to this link.
About Matthew White
Matthew White Grand Isle Juried Art Exhibit, The New Orleans Photo Alliance Elemental/Environmental Space Exhibit, and as part of a permanent museum exhibit for Parks Canada in New Brunswick. White is represented by Big Vision Media (www.bigvisionmedia.com).
Sponsored in part by Plaquemines Parish Economic Development, the exhibit is being held in conjunction with PhotoNOLA, an annual showcase of photography in New Orleans. The exhibit is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm in the lobby of the administrative building at the Port of New Orleans. A reception will be held on December 10, 2009 from 4:00 to 6:00 pm and the public is invited to attend.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
MRGO lawsuit victory
Could not find on the LOCAL news website, NOLA.com. Imagine that.
found at Bloomberg dot com
Hurricane Katrina Victims Win $719,698 From U.S. in First Trial
A A A By Margaret Cronin Fisk and Leslie T. Snadowsky
Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Katrina victims were awarded $719,698 in damages by a judge in a lawsuit claiming a canal dredged by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico destroyed a natural barrier to a storm surge.
U.S. District Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr., who heard the trial in New Orleans without a jury, yesterday found in favor of four residents and one business, while rejecting the claims of the owners of another property. The decision will support the claims of about 100,000 residents and business owners in the area, plaintiffs’ lawyers said.
Residents sued the U.S. and the Army engineers, claiming negligence in designing, constructing and maintaining the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, the canal known as Mr. Go.
Duval said the Army engineers are liable for the “negligent operation and maintenance” of the canal and not for faulty design or construction. Duval said in April at the beginning of the trial, the first over the Mr. Go lawsuits, that his finding would be used as a guide for other claims.
“Once the corps exercised its discretion to create a navigational channel, it was obligated to make sure that channel did not destroy the environment surrounding it thereby creating a hazard to life and property,” Duval said yesterday in his 156-page opinion. “When the corps designed the MRGO, it recognized that foreshore protection was going to be needed, yet the corps did nothing to monitor the problem in a meaningful way.”
Flooding after the 2005 hurricane drowned much of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward and nearby St. Bernard Parish.
‘Engineering Blunders’
“By 1988 it knew that indeed all of the engineering blunders that it had made now put the Parish of St. Bernard at risk,” Duval wrote.
The residents said the canal made New Orleans and the surrounding area more vulnerable to hurricane-induced flooding. They claimed the corps was warned repeatedly that the Mr. Go operation had removed natural buffers to floods, killing trees and infusing the marshland with saltwater.
The lawsuit, filed in 2005, was the first to go to trial on claims against the corps. The plaintiffs were seeking unspecified damages at the trial.
“The people of this community have finally been vindicated and now they’re going to be compensated,” Joe Bruno, a plaintiffs’ attorney, said yesterday in a phone interview.
‘Monumental Negligence’
“This is a landmark victory,” said attorney Pierce O’Donnell, who also represented the New Orleans residents. “It’s the first time ever the Army Corps of Engineers has been held responsible for its monumental negligence.”
The finding of negligence in the maintenance and operation of the canal supports the claims of about 100,000 residents and business owners in the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish, Bruno said.
Duval’s finding that the corps isn’t liable for negligent design of the canal will affect claims from about 80,000 property owners in east New Orleans, Bruno said.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers will be seeking a global settlement with the U.S. to cover those residents too, Bruno said.
Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment yesterday.
The U.S. said in court filings that it isn’t responsible for the flood damage caused by Katrina.
“This catastrophe would have occurred regardless of the Mr. GO and regardless of the way the channel was maintained prior to the flood,” the U.S. said in an April pretrial brief.
The corps said the levees were inadequate to withstand the force of Hurricane Katrina.
Witnesses for the plaintiffs said the Army knew or should have known that the canal would increase risk of flooding.
Corps Warned
“They knew in the mid 1970s, and they certainly knew it by 1981,” Sherwood M. Gagliano, a geologist and former consultant to the corps, testified. He said he submitted multiple reports to the corps warning about potential adverse effects.
The government didn’t undertake any of the remedial efforts he recommended, he testified. This led to “one of the greatest catastrophes in the history of the United States,” he said.
The U.S. wasn’t negligent and didn’t block remediation of problems, Gregory Breerwood, formerly the highest-ranking civilian with the New Orleans division of the corps at the time of Katrina, testified.
If anyone “suspected or determined that a project would have been detrimental to the public, we would have taken steps to either go to the proper authorities or to the proper offices to assure that that particular deficiency was dealt with and remedied,” he said.
Contemplated Suicide
One of the plaintiffs, Norman Robinson, a news anchor at the NBC affiliate in New Orleans, told the court he contemplated suicide when his home was destroyed.
Robinson said he “felt like an idiot” after hearing the testimony of multiple plaintiffs’ experts who said the corps knew about the probabilities of flooding because of the Mr. Go project.
“I should have known what they knew,” he said. “I never would have placed my family in jeopardy.”
Robinson and his wife weren’t awarded any damages in Duval’s ruling.
“The corps is only exposed to liability for negligent operation and maintenance of the MRGO and is not liable for any negligence relating to the original design and construction of the channel,” Duval said.
The decision eliminated the Robinsons’ claim because it relied on allegations of design flaws, he said. He found that the Army didn’t have a duty to construct a surge-protection barrier.
Funnel Effect
Duval said the corps was aware the MRGO could produce a funnel effect, which ultimately increased the height of Katrina’s storm surge and the magnitude of destruction. The canal acted as a funnel bringing water into the city and strengthening its force, Duval said.
The corps considered a remedial action to prevent this funnel effect in 1967, he said. “The plan was eventually rejected as not economically justified, detrimental to the economic interests of the local participants, and was so broad that it would require Congressional review,” he wrote.
The case is Robinson v. U.S., 06-cv-02268, and the cases are combined in In re Katrina Canal Breaches Consolidated Litigation, 05-cv-04182, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana (New Orleans).
To contact the reporters on this story: Margaret Cronin Fisk in Southfield, Michigan, at mcfisk@bloomberg.net; Leslie T. Snadowsky in New Orleanst .
Last Updated: November 19, 2009 00:01 EST
found at Bloomberg dot com
Hurricane Katrina Victims Win $719,698 From U.S. in First Trial
A A A By Margaret Cronin Fisk and Leslie T. Snadowsky
Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Katrina victims were awarded $719,698 in damages by a judge in a lawsuit claiming a canal dredged by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico destroyed a natural barrier to a storm surge.
U.S. District Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr., who heard the trial in New Orleans without a jury, yesterday found in favor of four residents and one business, while rejecting the claims of the owners of another property. The decision will support the claims of about 100,000 residents and business owners in the area, plaintiffs’ lawyers said.
Residents sued the U.S. and the Army engineers, claiming negligence in designing, constructing and maintaining the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, the canal known as Mr. Go.
Duval said the Army engineers are liable for the “negligent operation and maintenance” of the canal and not for faulty design or construction. Duval said in April at the beginning of the trial, the first over the Mr. Go lawsuits, that his finding would be used as a guide for other claims.
“Once the corps exercised its discretion to create a navigational channel, it was obligated to make sure that channel did not destroy the environment surrounding it thereby creating a hazard to life and property,” Duval said yesterday in his 156-page opinion. “When the corps designed the MRGO, it recognized that foreshore protection was going to be needed, yet the corps did nothing to monitor the problem in a meaningful way.”
Flooding after the 2005 hurricane drowned much of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward and nearby St. Bernard Parish.
‘Engineering Blunders’
“By 1988 it knew that indeed all of the engineering blunders that it had made now put the Parish of St. Bernard at risk,” Duval wrote.
The residents said the canal made New Orleans and the surrounding area more vulnerable to hurricane-induced flooding. They claimed the corps was warned repeatedly that the Mr. Go operation had removed natural buffers to floods, killing trees and infusing the marshland with saltwater.
The lawsuit, filed in 2005, was the first to go to trial on claims against the corps. The plaintiffs were seeking unspecified damages at the trial.
“The people of this community have finally been vindicated and now they’re going to be compensated,” Joe Bruno, a plaintiffs’ attorney, said yesterday in a phone interview.
‘Monumental Negligence’
“This is a landmark victory,” said attorney Pierce O’Donnell, who also represented the New Orleans residents. “It’s the first time ever the Army Corps of Engineers has been held responsible for its monumental negligence.”
The finding of negligence in the maintenance and operation of the canal supports the claims of about 100,000 residents and business owners in the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish, Bruno said.
Duval’s finding that the corps isn’t liable for negligent design of the canal will affect claims from about 80,000 property owners in east New Orleans, Bruno said.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers will be seeking a global settlement with the U.S. to cover those residents too, Bruno said.
Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment yesterday.
The U.S. said in court filings that it isn’t responsible for the flood damage caused by Katrina.
“This catastrophe would have occurred regardless of the Mr. GO and regardless of the way the channel was maintained prior to the flood,” the U.S. said in an April pretrial brief.
The corps said the levees were inadequate to withstand the force of Hurricane Katrina.
Witnesses for the plaintiffs said the Army knew or should have known that the canal would increase risk of flooding.
Corps Warned
“They knew in the mid 1970s, and they certainly knew it by 1981,” Sherwood M. Gagliano, a geologist and former consultant to the corps, testified. He said he submitted multiple reports to the corps warning about potential adverse effects.
The government didn’t undertake any of the remedial efforts he recommended, he testified. This led to “one of the greatest catastrophes in the history of the United States,” he said.
The U.S. wasn’t negligent and didn’t block remediation of problems, Gregory Breerwood, formerly the highest-ranking civilian with the New Orleans division of the corps at the time of Katrina, testified.
If anyone “suspected or determined that a project would have been detrimental to the public, we would have taken steps to either go to the proper authorities or to the proper offices to assure that that particular deficiency was dealt with and remedied,” he said.
Contemplated Suicide
One of the plaintiffs, Norman Robinson, a news anchor at the NBC affiliate in New Orleans, told the court he contemplated suicide when his home was destroyed.
Robinson said he “felt like an idiot” after hearing the testimony of multiple plaintiffs’ experts who said the corps knew about the probabilities of flooding because of the Mr. Go project.
“I should have known what they knew,” he said. “I never would have placed my family in jeopardy.”
Robinson and his wife weren’t awarded any damages in Duval’s ruling.
“The corps is only exposed to liability for negligent operation and maintenance of the MRGO and is not liable for any negligence relating to the original design and construction of the channel,” Duval said.
The decision eliminated the Robinsons’ claim because it relied on allegations of design flaws, he said. He found that the Army didn’t have a duty to construct a surge-protection barrier.
Funnel Effect
Duval said the corps was aware the MRGO could produce a funnel effect, which ultimately increased the height of Katrina’s storm surge and the magnitude of destruction. The canal acted as a funnel bringing water into the city and strengthening its force, Duval said.
The corps considered a remedial action to prevent this funnel effect in 1967, he said. “The plan was eventually rejected as not economically justified, detrimental to the economic interests of the local participants, and was so broad that it would require Congressional review,” he wrote.
The case is Robinson v. U.S., 06-cv-02268, and the cases are combined in In re Katrina Canal Breaches Consolidated Litigation, 05-cv-04182, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana (New Orleans).
To contact the reporters on this story: Margaret Cronin Fisk in Southfield, Michigan, at mcfisk@bloomberg.net; Leslie T. Snadowsky in New Orleanst .
Last Updated: November 19, 2009 00:01 EST
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Activites for a November Weekend
Friday:
Check out the bronze bearing plates along the mile markers along the Bay St. Louis Bridge.
Saturday:
Three Rivers Art Festival in Covington
Beautiful weather, great art, food, carmaraderie.
Sunday: Louisiana Renaissance Fesitval in Hammond (now thru December)
Our first adventure and probably not our last.
Check out the bronze bearing plates along the mile markers along the Bay St. Louis Bridge.
Saturday:
Three Rivers Art Festival in Covington
Beautiful weather, great art, food, carmaraderie.
Sunday: Louisiana Renaissance Fesitval in Hammond (now thru December)
Our first adventure and probably not our last.
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