By Russell McCulley NEW ORLEANS, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Victims of some of the worst flooding after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans sued the federal government on Thursday charging negligence in the construction and maintenance of floodwalls on the 17th Street Canal. The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status and unspecified damages, says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a permit in 1984 allowing the canal to be dredged to improve drainage in low-lying areas despite warnings it would make floodwalls along the canal less stable. Floodwalls along the 17th Street Canal collapsed shortly after Katrina struck the city Aug. 29, 2005, inundating several square miles (kilometres) of the city with roof-deep water. The adjacent Lakeview neighborhood was one of the hardest hit. According to the lawsuit filed in federal court in New Orleans, the collapsed floodwalls contributed to 80 percent of the flooding of New Orleans and caused at least 588 of the nearly 1,300 deaths attributed to the storm. A representative for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could not immediately be reached for comment. Last week, U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval in New Orleans, ruled that the agency could be sued for damages in another case involving the failure of levees on the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet canal. The Corps had argued that federal law granted the agency immunity from legal action arising from the failure of federally authorized flood control projects.
