NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane Katrina’s victims have put a price tag on their suffering and it is staggering — including one plaintiff seeking the unlikely sum of $3 quadrillion.
The total number — $3,014,170,389,176,410 — is the dollar figure so far sought from some 489,000 claims filed against the federal government over damage from the failure of levees and flood walls following the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane.
Of the total number of claims, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it has received 247 for at least $1 billion apiece, including the one for $3 quadrillion.
Reminds me of “God Warrior” mother, from Women’s TV Network, I always see it on commercials whenever I sit with my Mom to listen to her complain about her job.
The government is liable, the question is, which government and for what cost are they liable for. A quadrillion is obviously over the limit unless the time to execute this is long enough to be equal to the result after inflation (which will likely be high over the next year or two).
The Goverment should not have to pay anything to them. They live there because they choose to and I should not have to pay them becuase the place that they live is BELOW SEA LEVEL not my problem. It is like me suing the Gov because I live in Arizona and the Monsoon came with the Dust storms and ruined my A/C and then I have to live with out till it gets fixed is it the Gov. job to stop that from happening. NO
Thank goodness the families of the 250 000 killed in the tsunami didn’t all sue for huge amounts. Or the parents of the babies who starve to death each day in Africa. Or the people who die of diseases for which the government has negligently failed to find a cure.
Anyway, I’m far more interested in when the Normans are going to offer a full written apology for Hastings.
Did the government make your air conditioner, and deliver it with a guarantee against dust storms?
If so, they should at least fix it. But the problem starts there. Are they just going to put it back the way it was, not doing the job that was intended? Or are they going to fix it to the specifications that were originally reported?
I know these lawsuits are highly unlikely to go anywhere. Except, hopefully, to keep some attention on the subject until those levies are rebuilt to a better standard of quality. It’s kind of pointless to build such things if they’re not going to do what they were made to do. Build and maintain, that is.
I say this because I live in a city that’s surrounded by levies as well. If Sacramento were in the path of hurricanes like the Gulf Coast, much of the city would be underwater every winter. Our levies are supposedly in worse shape than those of New Orleans.
My advice to anyone, no matter where you live, is to buy your house on high ground. Never trust someone else to keep the floodwaters away if you have a choice. Fortunately for my wife and me, our house is in an area that’s highly unlikely to flood as it’s surrounded by nominally lower areas. You can also check out my (very old) California home-buying advice page.
An American lawyer is at a law conference in Italy, and 2 Italian lawyers come up to him and ask “Is it rue that in America, if someone slips and falls on the sidewalk in front of your building, they can sue you for millions of dollars?”
“Yes”, the American replies. The Italians start talking quickly together in Italian. The American asks “Do you want to go to the states and start a law firm?”
“No”, they reply, “We want to go to the states and fall on sidewalks.”
