June 2006

A 2006 Army Corps of Engineers internal report — followed by an independent Team Louisiana study — confirmed that the levees breached not primarily from being overtopped but due to design and construction failures, particularly in the 17th Street and London Avenue canals. This meant the flooding of Black neighborhoods in the Lower Ninth Ward and Gentilly was a result of government engineering negligence. The finding supported billions in legal claims filed by residents.

A 2006 Army Corps internal report confirmed levees at the 17th Street and London Avenue canals breached due to design failures, not overtopping. This meant flooding of Black neighborhoods was government engineering negligence, supporting billions in legal claims filed by residents.

Louisiana's Road Home rebuilding program, funded by $10.4 billion in federal aid, calculated grants based on pre-storm property values rather than rebuilding costs. Since property values in Black neighborhoods were systematically lower due to decades of segregation, Black homeowners received significantly smaller grants. The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center filed a federal discrimination complaint in 2008.

Independent investigations, including a congressionally mandated study by the American Society of Civil Engineers, concluded that the levee failures that flooded New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina resulted from engineering and design failures by the Army Corps of Engineers — not the storm surge alone. The Lower Ninth Ward, a predominantly Black neighborhood, suffered the worst flooding. The federal government was found liable in 2009.

Louisiana's $10 billion Road Home program, designed to help homeowners rebuild after Katrina, calculated grants based on pre-storm property value rather than rebuilding cost. Because systemic discrimination had suppressed property values in Black neighborhoods, Black homeowners received on average $20,000 less than white homeowners with comparable storm damage. The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center sued; a 2011 HUD agreement secured $62 million in additional payments.