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for the new years holiday gone and I had a wonderful time, I stayed in the French Quarter and u would never know there was a flood but I did a Katrina tour and it was the most depressing thing I have ever seen. TV and pics do it no justice u have to see the devastation with your own eyes.
They deserve every penny of the $3 Quadrillion.
I hope they win.
btw that is several times the GDP of the United States.
Katrina's victims measure storm in quadrillions of dollars
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NEW ORLEANS -- Hurricane Katrina's victims have put a price tag on their suffering: $3,014,170,389,176,410 and counting.
That quadrillion-dollar figure represents a fraction of the roughly 489,000 claims that residents and business owners filed against the federal government over damage from the failure of levees and flood walls following the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it has received 247 claims for at least $1 billion apiece, including one for an even $3 quadrillion.
"That's the mother of all high numbers," said Loren Scott, a Baton Rouge-based economist.
Someone in Baker, 93 miles northwest of New Orleans, filed the claim that inflated the total from the trillions into the quadrillions. Baker is far from the epicenter of Katrina's destruction, but the city hosts a trailer park where hundreds of evacuees have lived since the storm.
For the sake of perspective: a mere $1 quadrillion would dwarf the U.S. gross domestic product, which Scott said was $13.2 trillion in 2007, while a stack of one quadrillion pennies would reach Saturn.
Some residents may have grossly exaggerated their claims to send a message to the Corps, which has accepted blame for poorly designing the failed levees.
"I understand the anger," Scott said. "I also understand it's a negotiating tactic: Aim high and negotiate down."
Lawyers have advised clients not to skimp in estimating their losses from Katrina, because the amounts listed on their claims forms can limit how much they recover.
Daniel Becnel, Jr., a lawyer who said his clients have filed more than 60,000 claims, said measuring Katrina's devastation in dollars and cents is a nearly impossible task.
"There's no way on earth you can figure it out," he said. "The trauma these people have undergone is unlike anything that has occurred in the history of our country."
The Corps released zip codes, but no names, for the 247 claims of at least $1 billion. The list includes a $77 billion claim by the city of New Orleans. Fourteen involve a wrongful death claim. Fifteen were filed by businesses, including several insurance companies.
Katrina, which is blamed for more than 1,600 deaths in Louisiana and Mississippi, is considered the most destructive storm to ever hit the U.S. It caused at least $60 billion in insured losses and could cost Gulf Coast states up to $125 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Most of the claims were filed before a deadline that coincided with Katrina's second anniversary, but the Corps is still receiving them _ about 100 claims have arrived over the past three weeks _ and is feeding them into a computer database.
The Corps says it isn't passing judgment on the merits of each claim. The federal courts are in charge of deciding if a claim is valid and how much compensation is warranted.
"It's important to the person who filed it, so we're taking every single claim seriously," Corps spokeswoman Amanda Jones said.
Plaintiffs attorney Joe Bruno said the claims process is a "joke," designed to help the government negotiate settlements.
"The government is using this to spit in our face one more time," he said. "The numbers are meaningless in terms of whether the government will ever pay and meaningless in regard to how much it owes."
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
They deserve every penny of the $3 Quadrillion.
I hope they win.
btw that is several times the GDP of the United States.
Katrina's victims measure storm in quadrillions of dollars
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National NewsMore >>NASA works toward February shuttle launchJones going to jail
Sheriff says missing Marine is dead
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National News Minute
Utah trooper who used stun gun on motorist back on the job
Police: Mom charged with murdering daughters says they were possessed
'Major announcement' expected in missing Marine case
Consumer confidence drops to 6-year low
Public hearings today on Christmas-Day tiger attack
NEW ORLEANS -- Hurricane Katrina's victims have put a price tag on their suffering: $3,014,170,389,176,410 and counting.
That quadrillion-dollar figure represents a fraction of the roughly 489,000 claims that residents and business owners filed against the federal government over damage from the failure of levees and flood walls following the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it has received 247 claims for at least $1 billion apiece, including one for an even $3 quadrillion.
"That's the mother of all high numbers," said Loren Scott, a Baton Rouge-based economist.
Someone in Baker, 93 miles northwest of New Orleans, filed the claim that inflated the total from the trillions into the quadrillions. Baker is far from the epicenter of Katrina's destruction, but the city hosts a trailer park where hundreds of evacuees have lived since the storm.
For the sake of perspective: a mere $1 quadrillion would dwarf the U.S. gross domestic product, which Scott said was $13.2 trillion in 2007, while a stack of one quadrillion pennies would reach Saturn.
Some residents may have grossly exaggerated their claims to send a message to the Corps, which has accepted blame for poorly designing the failed levees.
"I understand the anger," Scott said. "I also understand it's a negotiating tactic: Aim high and negotiate down."
Lawyers have advised clients not to skimp in estimating their losses from Katrina, because the amounts listed on their claims forms can limit how much they recover.
Daniel Becnel, Jr., a lawyer who said his clients have filed more than 60,000 claims, said measuring Katrina's devastation in dollars and cents is a nearly impossible task.
"There's no way on earth you can figure it out," he said. "The trauma these people have undergone is unlike anything that has occurred in the history of our country."
The Corps released zip codes, but no names, for the 247 claims of at least $1 billion. The list includes a $77 billion claim by the city of New Orleans. Fourteen involve a wrongful death claim. Fifteen were filed by businesses, including several insurance companies.
Katrina, which is blamed for more than 1,600 deaths in Louisiana and Mississippi, is considered the most destructive storm to ever hit the U.S. It caused at least $60 billion in insured losses and could cost Gulf Coast states up to $125 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Most of the claims were filed before a deadline that coincided with Katrina's second anniversary, but the Corps is still receiving them _ about 100 claims have arrived over the past three weeks _ and is feeding them into a computer database.
The Corps says it isn't passing judgment on the merits of each claim. The federal courts are in charge of deciding if a claim is valid and how much compensation is warranted.
"It's important to the person who filed it, so we're taking every single claim seriously," Corps spokeswoman Amanda Jones said.
Plaintiffs attorney Joe Bruno said the claims process is a "joke," designed to help the government negotiate settlements.
"The government is using this to spit in our face one more time," he said. "The numbers are meaningless in terms of whether the government will ever pay and meaningless in regard to how much it owes."
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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