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Katrina's Victims Ask for Huge Checks
Associated Press ^ | 1/9/08 | MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

Posted on 01/09/2008 11:14:37 AM PST by Wicket

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — 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.

"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.

(Excerpt) Read more at ap.google.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: katrina; lawsuit; victims
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Grossly exaggerated claims, ya think???
1 posted on 01/09/2008 11:14:38 AM PST by Wicket
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To: Wicket

Consider the source and remember, people in hell want ice water. Good luck!


2 posted on 01/09/2008 11:16:22 AM PST by ExTexasRedhead
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To: Wicket
including one plaintiff seeking the unlikely sum of $3 quadrillion.

But he is willing to settle out of court for a 6-pack.

3 posted on 01/09/2008 11:16:44 AM PST by Graybeard58 ( Remember and pray for SSgt. Matt Maupin - MIA/POW- Iraq since 04/09/04)
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To: Wicket
Like we didn’t see this coming.
4 posted on 01/09/2008 11:16:51 AM PST by alice_in_bubbaland (Ron Paul is nutcase, plain & simple.)
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To: Wicket

>>A stack of one quadrillion pennies would reach Saturn.<<

Who knew?


5 posted on 01/09/2008 11:17:01 AM PST by Jeff Chandler (Hillary Clinton: Cankles, Cackle, and Cuckold.)
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To: Wicket

People choose to live in a hole and blame the government when it fills up.


6 posted on 01/09/2008 11:17:15 AM PST by Always Right
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To: Graybeard58

>>But he is willing to settle out of court for a 6-pack.<<

...of Heineken.


7 posted on 01/09/2008 11:17:34 AM PST by Jeff Chandler (Hillary Clinton: Cankles, Cackle, and Cuckold.)
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To: Wicket

Subtract about 40 years of welfare programs and call it even.


8 posted on 01/09/2008 11:18:04 AM PST by Ron in Acreage (Thinking of new tagline)
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To: Wicket

“So Mr X. I think we can use your pain and suffering to sue the government for $1 billion. “
“Good. When do we start?”
“First, I need a retainer of $50”
“Well, go ahead and get you one”
“No, I mean I need for you to give me $50..”
“Shoot, if I had $50, I wouldn’t be suing the government”


9 posted on 01/09/2008 11:19:19 AM PST by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: Wicket
I'm SHOCKED, SHOCKED I tell ya!
10 posted on 01/09/2008 11:19:27 AM PST by rockabyebaby (PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR INFIDEL STEPHENJOHNBANKER)
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To: Wicket

I F-ING HATE THESE PEOPLE! THEY DESERVE NOTHING MORE THAN SPIT IN THEIR FACE!


11 posted on 01/09/2008 11:26:51 AM PST by Niteranger68 (Questions are free. Answers are $1. Correct answers are $5.)
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To: Wicket
This is merely extortion of the American Taxpayer via the federal government. And, it should be clearly, and loudly stated that this extortion was totally facilitated and made possible because liberals, and their MSM cheerleaders, sought to "get Bush" by using Katrina as a bludgeon.

Make no mistake, Katrina was the weapon used by the MSM and liberals to assault the Bush presidency. As such, billions upon billions have been squandered in LA in an attempt to buy off and make peace with all the greedy malcontents who quickly learned that the louder you squeal, "It's Bush's fault", the more money, ATM cards, you get.

Disgraceful, but that's what we have today. Today feelings and compassion can only be demonstrated by how much largess you can shovel at a problem or a group of people.

12 posted on 01/09/2008 11:28:56 AM PST by Obadiah (I don't like to brag - but I'm half-bilingual!)
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To: Wicket
"3 quadrillion? I knew I shouldn't have settled for a tub of beer!"


13 posted on 01/09/2008 11:29:15 AM PST by Turbopilot (iumop ap!sdn w,I 'aw dlaH)
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To: Wicket
3Q is roughly 1000 times the whole world's annual GDP.

The complainant believes he is entitled to the value of what everyone in the world produces for the next thousand years.

14 posted on 01/09/2008 11:29:23 AM PST by wideawake (Why is it that so many self-proclaimed "Constitutionalists" know so little about the Constitution?)
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To: Wicket
"including one plaintiff seeking the unlikely sum of $3 quadrillion."

He was going to ask for $4 quadrillion, but figured that would be excessive.

15 posted on 01/09/2008 11:29:28 AM PST by robertpaulsen
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To: Always Right

“People choose to live in a hole and blame the government when it fills up.”

CORPS CHIEF ADMITS TO ‘DESIGN FAILURE’
Thursday, April 06, 2006
By Bill Walsh
Washington bureau

WASHINGTON — In the closest thing yet to a mea culpa, the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged Wednesday that a “design failure” led to the breach of the 17th Street Canal levee that flooded much of the city during Hurricane Katrina.

Lt. Gen. Carl Strock told a Senate committee that the corps neglected to consider the possibility that floodwalls atop the 17th Street Canal levee would lurch away from their footings under significant water pressure and eat away at the earthen barriers below.

“We did not account for that occurring,” Strock said after the Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing. “It could be called a design failure.”

A botched design has long been suspected by independent forensic engineers probing the levee failures. A panel of engineering experts confirmed it last month in a report saying the “I-wall” design could not withstand the force of the rising water in the canal and triggered the breach.

But until Wednesday the corps, which designed and oversaw construction of the levees, had not explicitly taken responsibility for the mistake.

“We have now concluded we had problems with the design of the structure,” Strock told members of the subcommittee that finances corps operations. “We had hoped that wasn’t the case, but we recognize it is the reality.”

Entire article,

http://www.nola.com/frontpage/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1144306231230500.xml


16 posted on 01/09/2008 11:29:42 AM PST by Mila
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To: Jeff Chandler

“A stack of one quadrillion pennies would reach Saturn.”

I would settle out of court for a stack that would reach Mars.


17 posted on 01/09/2008 11:31:40 AM PST by Augustinian monk (.)
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To: Wicket

In Nevada we just had a smiliar situation happen... a canal broke and put 1,500 people out of their homes... totally destroyed Fernley Nevada... no one has blamed the government and demanded they get rich quick off it.

“President Bush has declared part of northern Nevada a national disaster area. This means that victims of the flooding there are able to get federal assistance.

Flood waters continue to recede in Fernley following a weekend canal rupture that flooded hundreds of homes. Residents are now waiting to hear about federal relief. More than 400 families are looking for help from the Red Cross.

Nevada U.S. Senator Harry Reid and officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, spent Monday morning touring a flood-ravaged Fernley neighborhood and accessing the damage.”


18 posted on 01/09/2008 11:32:53 AM PST by cjohnson1 (http://www.uncoveror.com/castro.htm)
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To: Wicket

19 posted on 01/09/2008 11:33:47 AM PST by Snickering Hound
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To: Wicket

Paging John Edwards,,paging John Edwards.


20 posted on 01/09/2008 11:34:18 AM PST by austinaero
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