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Army corps sued

New York: New Orleans has filed a claim for $77 billion in damages against the U.S. army corps of engineers for building levees incapable of withstanding Hurricane Katrina, leading to the devastation of large parts of the city. It is thought that up to 30,000 individual claims could also be made against the corps. According to the daily New Orleans Times-Picayune, potential claimants descended on the corps's New Orleans office in their tens of thousands. The claimants argue that it was the failure of the corps to develop a river outlet into the outlying wetlands that destroyed ecosystems and turned the shipping channel into a funnel for surging waters when Katrina struck on August 29 2005. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007

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