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.
