Richard
Final Approach
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Ack...city life
In CA homeowners are required to have flood ins or prove they are not located within a flood plain. At least I always have had to. My current res is about 800 msl yet I had to show I was not w/in a flood area. Why did not the city of Nawlins not have such a provision?
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Louisiana prosecutors are investigating the failure of the levees around New Orleans to determine if bungled engineering and construction of the flood protection system warrants legal action.
Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti has not ruled out a criminal prosecution but is focused first on determining whether a successful civil judgment could help evacuees recover damages from private insurers, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
"I think his goal is to see if there's any way to help people who lost everything," said Foti spokeswoman Kris Wartelle.
Homeowners would be more likely to recover financial damages if a local court judgment declares that flaws in the levee system caused the devastating flooding after the levees around the city were breached, Wartelle said.
Louisiana State University's Hurricane Center this week took on a state contract for a forensic investigation to determine why the levees failed. The findings would be key to any legal action.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has responsibility for maintaining the levee system that rings New Orleans, a city built largely below sea level.
Although officials initially said the storm surge caused by Katrina pushed water over the top of the levees, some investigators have said the floodwalls collapsed when water rushed through loose soil near their base.
DA INVESTIGATING
New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan also is assessing the levee failures, spokeswoman Leatrice Dupre said.
"We're looking into the matter to decide whether a grand jury investigation is warranted," Dupre said. "We're going to look at some reports and look at some testimony."
About 80 percent of New Orleans flooded after Katrina, with some areas inundated with as much as 12 feet of water. The city had a population of about 500,000 before Katrina.
Many homeowners did not have separate flood insurance and have had difficulty collecting on other insurance policies that explicitly exclude water damage.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said on Monday that the levees, which were supposed to have been built 15 feet tall, had sunk to a height of about 12 to 13 feet before the storm through a natural process of subsidence that affects construction throughout the city.
"We can debate about whether the workmanship was good or not -- and probably it wasn't very good," Nagin told a town hall meeting in Baton Rouge.
Even if a state lawsuit were successful in getting a judgment recognizing levee flaws, it is unclear whether that would result in larger settlements for property owners. The insurance industry already has challenged the legal logic of that case.
"It is not surprising that public officials in Louisiana are trying everything they can to recover dollars for those whose lives were devastated by Hurricane Katrina," said Julie Rochman, a spokeswoman for the American Insurance Association. "But insurance contracts are contracts."
More than 250,000 homes were substantially damaged or destroyed by Katrina, and the rebuilding effort is projected to cost more than $200 billion.
The American Insurance Association estimates insured losses at between $40 billion and $60 billion.
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Louisiana prosecutors are investigating the failure of the levees around New Orleans to determine if bungled engineering and construction of the flood protection system warrants legal action.
Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti has not ruled out a criminal prosecution but is focused first on determining whether a successful civil judgment could help evacuees recover damages from private insurers, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
"I think his goal is to see if there's any way to help people who lost everything," said Foti spokeswoman Kris Wartelle.
Homeowners would be more likely to recover financial damages if a local court judgment declares that flaws in the levee system caused the devastating flooding after the levees around the city were breached, Wartelle said.
Louisiana State University's Hurricane Center this week took on a state contract for a forensic investigation to determine why the levees failed. The findings would be key to any legal action.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has responsibility for maintaining the levee system that rings New Orleans, a city built largely below sea level.
Although officials initially said the storm surge caused by Katrina pushed water over the top of the levees, some investigators have said the floodwalls collapsed when water rushed through loose soil near their base.
DA INVESTIGATING
New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan also is assessing the levee failures, spokeswoman Leatrice Dupre said.
"We're looking into the matter to decide whether a grand jury investigation is warranted," Dupre said. "We're going to look at some reports and look at some testimony."
About 80 percent of New Orleans flooded after Katrina, with some areas inundated with as much as 12 feet of water. The city had a population of about 500,000 before Katrina.
Many homeowners did not have separate flood insurance and have had difficulty collecting on other insurance policies that explicitly exclude water damage.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said on Monday that the levees, which were supposed to have been built 15 feet tall, had sunk to a height of about 12 to 13 feet before the storm through a natural process of subsidence that affects construction throughout the city.
"We can debate about whether the workmanship was good or not -- and probably it wasn't very good," Nagin told a town hall meeting in Baton Rouge.
Even if a state lawsuit were successful in getting a judgment recognizing levee flaws, it is unclear whether that would result in larger settlements for property owners. The insurance industry already has challenged the legal logic of that case.
"It is not surprising that public officials in Louisiana are trying everything they can to recover dollars for those whose lives were devastated by Hurricane Katrina," said Julie Rochman, a spokeswoman for the American Insurance Association. "But insurance contracts are contracts."
More than 250,000 homes were substantially damaged or destroyed by Katrina, and the rebuilding effort is projected to cost more than $200 billion.
The American Insurance Association estimates insured losses at between $40 billion and $60 billion.
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