A $720,000 award to seven plaintiffs in a suit over Hurricane Katrina damage could open the federal government up to billions of dollars in claims.

A federal judge in New Orleans has ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers’ failure to properly maintain a navigation channel led to massive flooding from Katrina. Yesterday’s ruling should give more than 100,000 other individuals, businesses and government entities a better shot at claiming damages. The plaintiffs argued the Army Corps’ shoddy oversight of the channel led to the flooding of New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward and neighboring St. Bernard Parish.

Many in New Orleans have argued that the 2005 flooding was a manmade disaster caused by government failure to maintain the city’s levee system.