Louisiana Property Damage Case Against Army Corps Will Be Heard This Week

A lawsuit alleging the Army Corps of Engineers ruined property in St. Bernard Parish and the Lower 9th Ward in Louisiana, after it built a shipping channel that turned into a conduit for storm surge during Hurricane Katrina is to be heard in court this week.

A trial starts Monday in New Orleans. The suit was filed in 2005 in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington and argued that the government effectively took residential and commercial property when the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet shipping channel was built. The suit argues that residents in St. Bernard and the Lower 9th Ward deserve to be compensated for the government’s taking of their property.

The suit is one of several legal attacks filed against the Army Corps after Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005.