Extreme Weather Events and Government Compensation (CRS Report for Congress)
| Release Date |
Sept. 22, 2015 |
| Report Number |
LS_2015-09-22_01 |
| Report Type |
Legal Sidebar |
| Authors |
Coleman, Kevin J.;Fischer, Eric A. |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
On May 1, 2015, developments in two courts sent the same signal: a government sometimes has to compensate land owners for 'takings' of their property rights under the Constitution when government measures and extreme weather events such as hurricanes or droughts intersect. One case, from Louisiana, involves too much water; the other, from Texas, too little. The Louisiana case dealt with the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, popularly referred to as MR GO (spoken as 'Mister Go'). MR GO is a 76-mile navigational channel authorized by Congress and built and operated by the Corps of Engineers to facilitate vessel traffic between New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, owners of flooded land in and near the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans alleged that the Army Corps of Engineers had constructed, expanded, and operated MR GO in a manner that significantly increased storm surge up the channel, resulting in flooding of their properties during Hurricane Katrina and subsequent hurricanes and storms. Based on such allegations, they sought compensation in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (CFC) for a taking of their property.
