Thousands of Individuals and City of New Orleans to Sue Army Engineers Over Levee Breaks

President George Bush visited the Gulf Coast on Thursday, touring rebuilt homes in a neighborhood still devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. He then met with area mayors at the Biloxi City Hall. This is President Bush's 14th visit to the Mississippi coast since the hurricane 18 months ago, an average of slightly less than once per month. His visit came on the same day that thousands of private citizens, and the city of New Orleans, sued the Army Corps of Engineers, which was responsible for building and maintaining the system of levees surrounding New Orleans. The suit claims it was negligence on the part of the Corps that ultimately let to the massive destruction the city has seen.

The city's lawsuit was not timed to coincide with Bush's visit, according to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's spokesman, Jerry Ross. "We did not time the announcement of our filing of form SF-95 to coincide with anything," he said late Thursday to the Times-Picayune. "There were absolutely no motives connected to the timing of the announcement."

Also giving notice of intent to sue were two utilities companies, Entergy New Orleans, the city's electrical utility, which is seeking $655 million in damages, and the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board, which put in a claim of about $460 million, said a spokesmen for the agencies.

"I fully understand that there are frustrations, and I want to know the frustrations," Bush said at a lunch with local and state officials regarding the rebuilding effort. "To the extend we can help, we'll help." He added that the "federal government's role has been to write checks," and that the state government's duty is "to expedite the federal money to the local folks. I told the people that I would work with Congress to write a $110 billion check for the people of Louisiana and Mississippi, and that check has been written."

State and local officials, moreso in Louisiana than in Mississippi, have been harshly criticized for not transferring federal money to local homeowners more expediently. Of the initial $110 billion set aside for rebuilding, roughly $86 billion has been reserved for specific purposes, but only $53 billion has actually been spent.

"There is money in the pipeline," President Bush said. "If it is stuck because of unnecessary bureaucracies, our responsibility at the federal, state and local level is to unstick it."

President Bush said that one purpose of his visit was "to tell the people here in the gulf Coast that we still think about them in Washington." This may have been a response to some, like Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu, who thought it was a "glaring omission," that President Bush did not mention the recovery in his January 23rd State Of The Union address.

In Mississippi, President Bush met with Nellie Partridge, 84, who sat on her Long Beach porch awaiting the president's arrival.

"What a pleasure, one of my favorite people," she said as President Bush arrived. Partridge lives in one of roughly a half dozen homes that have been rebuilt with federal grand and loan money.

That sentiment would likely not be mirrored by one of the thousands of private residents who also alerted the Corps of their intent to sue. So clogged around the Corps offices were the streets that at one point during the day, ten Corps employees, dressed in bright orange vests, were standing in front of the building, collecting forms. According to a Corps spokesman, they have received enough of the forms to fill an 8 x 10 room.

Sources:

www.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/washington/02bush.html
www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/nation/16814259.htm
www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf
www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf