A federal judge has ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers' failure to properly maintain a navigation channel led to massive flooding in Hurricane Katrina.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval late Wednesday ruled in favor of residents who alleged the Army Corps' shoddy oversight of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet led to the flooding of New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward and neighboring St. Bernard Parish.

"The corps had an opportunity to take a myriad of actions to alleviate this deterioration or rehabilitate this deterioration and failed to do so," Duval said. "Clearly the expression 'talk is cheap' applies here."

Although Judge Duval awarded $170,000 each to six of the plaintiffs in this lawsuit, as many as 100,000 additional property owners could be eligible for compensation due to the negligence of the Corps of Engineers. The decision only applies to the areas flooded by the MRGO, which is limited to New Orleans East and St. Bernard Parish, but the estimated 80,000 claims could result in hundreds of millions in damages owed by the federal government.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin told CNN the ruling would "open the floodgates" for people in the Lower 9th Ward to seek "proper compensation."

"If this is allowed to stand, I think you will see a multitude of lawsuits, the City of New Orleans included," Nagin said.

"Pay up quickly. Get the money started down here," Lower 9th Ward resident Gabriel Rogers said. "You can ride down there and see nobody," the retired 63-year-old truck driver said as he pointed to the empty lots behind his house.

"Judge Duval's decision confirms what I and other leaders from Louisiana have been saying since the horrifying days following Hurricane Katrina: this was one of the most catastrophic natural and man-made disasters in American history," Senator Mary Landrieu said Thursday.

"The finding that the Corps of Engineers was "grossly negligent" in its operation and maintenance of a federal navigable waterway has serious implications for all of coastal Louisiana, and the entire country. This nation has severely neglected its responsibilities when it comes to investing in critical infrastructure and it is costing us lives and billions of unnecessary dollars.

"Nearly all of the 80,000 homes in St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans East were raised to the ground by the flood waters that rushed through the MRGO. The devastation and loss of life, community and economic livelihood dealt a blow to this area, the likes of which have rarely been seen in this country.

Many in New Orleans have argued that Hurricane Katrina, which struck the region Aug. 29, 2005, was a manmade disaster caused by the Army Corps' failure to maintain the levee system protecting the city.

Loyola University law professor Dane Ciolino said that if Duval's ruling survives an appeal, he would expect Congress to approve a federal settlement rather than going through individual trials. Total damages could reach into the billions of dollars.

"It's time to stop litigating and start negotiating," Pierce O'Donnell, a Los Angeles attorney who was one of the lead lawyers on the case, told The Associated Press. "With Judge Duval's ruling, we now have a weapon."

The plaintiffs' lawyers said last week that they would approach congressional leaders after Thanksgiving with a list of demands to settle the case. They said the federal government needs to compensate victims throughout the city, repair the region's broken infrastructure, restore the wetlands of south Louisiana and overhaul the way the corps operates.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said the ruling could "serve as a warning for the future and as a means to help bring some form of relief to the victims of this storm."

Mark Davis, director of the Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy, called the ruling "a watershed moment in how the government's responsibilities to the environment and the people are evaluated."

Judge Duval's ruling "clearly has implications for other areas beyond Louisiana," he told The Associated Press.

This article was originally published in the November 23, 2009 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper