With the world watching what the spinmasters of the insurance industry called the great New Orleans Flood, the preventable disaster delivered a horror beyond words.
“Judge Duval exposed 40 years of the Army Corps of Engineers’ gross malfeasance with regard to the operation and maintenance of the MR-GO,” said Pierce O’Donnell, a Los Angeles-based attorney and co-leader of the plaintiff’s legal team. “His decision is an extreme condemnation of the lack of concern for the safety of New Orleans and St. Bernard residents.”
"Duval said he was 'utterly convinced' that the corps' failure to shore up the channel doomed the channel to grow to two to three times its design width" (CainBurdeau)
Duval’s decision is also a fascinating read – all 189 pages of his Findings of Fact and the two-page Judgment.
