NICE!

Katrina Victims Sue For $3 Quadrillion
High Price May Have Been Exaggerated To Send Message

POSTED: 11:02 pm EST January 8, 2008
UPDATED: 10:19 am EST January 9, 2008
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NEW ORLEANS -- Hurricane Katrina's victims have put a more than $3 quadrillion price tag on their suffering.

The quadrillion-dollar figure represents a fraction of the roughly 489,000 claims that residents and business owners filed against the federal government over damage from the failure of levees and flood walls following the Aug. 29, 2005, storm.

Officials said some residents may have grossly exaggerated their claims to send a message to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has accepted blame for poorly designing the failed levees.

The Corps of Engineers said it has received 247 claims for at least $1 billion apiece, including one for an even $3 quadrillion filed by someone in Baker -- 93 miles northwest of New Orleans. Though far from the epicenter of Katrina's destruction, the city hosts a trailer park where hundreds of evacuees have lived since the storm.

For the sake of perspective: a mere $1 quadrillion would dwarf the U.S. gross domestic product, which Baton Rouge economist Loren Scott said was $13.2 trillion in 2007 -- adding that a stack of 1 quadrillion pennies would reach Saturn.