Katrina's victims ask for huge checks
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Katrina's victims ask for huge checks
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.
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A whopping $3,014,170,389,176,410 is the dollar figure so far sought from some of the largest claims filed against the federal government over damage from the failure of levees and flood walls following the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane.
Of roughly 489,000 total 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.
"That's the mother of all high numbers," said Loren Scott, a Baton Rouge-based economist.
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. 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."
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.
Little is known about the person who claimed $3 quadrillion. It was filed in Baker, 93 miles northwest of New Orleans. Baker is far from the epicenter of Katrina's destruction, but the city has a trailer park where hundreds of evacuees have lived since the storm.
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 said it isn't passing judgment on the merits of each claim. 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. -
3 quads? it's like asking to bring heaven to earth
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wow if give me, i would have nothing to worry about in this world
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I saw on my Yahoo homepage...
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i saw it too... i was like wtf?Originally posted by wonderamazement:I saw on my Yahoo homepage...
what they gona do with all that money!? i dont think rebuilding their houses will cost that much! -
in that case maybe i oso wanna say i stay with thm there
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act of god oso can claim damages ah?
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Not bad. $3,000,000,000,000,000 for something priceless. The US government is already getting a good offer.
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he can buy singapore...or not
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can buy the planet already...Originally posted by Deino:he can buy singapore...or not -
cannot.Originally posted by monoslayer:act of god oso can claim damages ah?
but that's not what they are claiming.
They are claiming "...against the federal government over damage from the failure of levees and flood walls..."
It's like lightning strike a tree, tree collapse on your car, your insurance say act of god, but you can sue government for planting the tree there etc.
(doesn't work in sg though.. i dun think u can win if u sue the government here) -
I'm blaming the hundreds of thousands of lawyers there ..... -
ya...america is so full of itOriginally posted by Vigelic:cannot.
but that's not what they are claiming.
They are claiming "...against the federal government over damage from the failure of levees and flood walls..."
It's like lightning strike a tree, tree collapse on your car, your insurance say act of god, but you can sue government for planting the tree there etc.
(doesn't work in sg though.. i dun think u can win if u sue the government here) -
should have flatten new orleans with nukes..
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the government was slow to help and when they did the quality of help was not very good. theOriginally posted by monoslayer:act of god oso can claim damages ah?