US attorneys to appeal judge’s Katrina flooding ruling
NEW ORLEANS — Federal attorneys plan to appeal a judge’s ruling that the US government is responsible for some of the flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina and other storms — flooding blamed on a now-closed navigation channel.
They filed a notice of appeal Friday evening.
Last May, Judge Susan Braden of the US Court of Federal Claims in Washington ruled the flooding constituted a “taking” of property for which people must be compensated. Plaintiffs in the case include the government of coastal St. Bernard Parish, adjacent to New Orleans.
Braden ruled in a 2005 lawsuit that focused on the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet — a navigation channel built by the US Army Corps of Engineers and blamed by many for flooding in St. Bernard and New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward.
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