The federal government could be liable up to an unbelievable $500 billion, reports the New York Times’ Campbell Robertson, after Federal Judge Stanwood R. Duval ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers did not maintain a navigation channel, leading to Hurricane Katrina flooding. The ruling is in response to a class action lawsuit by New Orleans residents, with six plaintiffs receiving money for now, while “tens of thousands of other property owners could now try to join class-action lawsuits against the government under the same legal reasoning.”

This may mark the first time the federal government has ever been held legally liable for incompetence. Unfortunately unprecedented legal terrain isn’t the only problem facing the residents of New Orleans. Times’ Michael Grunwald has impressively chronicled that the Army Corps of Engineers still hasn’t made New Orleans safe, even after Katrina (he won Understanding Government’s Preventive Journalism award for this reporting). The federal government has neither fully dealt with the consequences of Katrina — nor come up with a plan to prevent another disaster.

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