A quadrillion has been claimed as damages for the Federal Government’s failures in dealing with, or preventing, the damages from Hurricane Katrina.

Claims against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers arising from the collapse of the levees in New Orleans have reportedly broken the $3 quadrillion barrier.

This is definitely into "snigger" territory.

Hurricane Katrina’s victims are looking to be compensated for their suffering, to the tune of three quadrillion dollars. That’s the total amount of damages sought from some 489,000 claims filed against the federal government over the disaster. An economist says the high number reveals a strategy by plaintiffs to "aim high and negotiate down."

So errr, why does quadrillion engender a snigger? If a quadrillion of damage  has been done, surely the victims should get a quadrillion of recompense, yes?

Well, actually, that quadrillion is from one claim alone:

The figure – $US3,014,170,389,176,410 ($A3.44 thousand trillion) –
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 devastating
hurricane that hit the US Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005.

The US Army Corps of Engineers says it has received 247 claims for
at least $US1 billion ($A1.14 billion) apiece, including one for an
even $US3 quadrillion ($A3.43 quadrillion).

And here’s the problem. Sure, when people screw up there is a legal right to get damages from the harm their screw up has caused. Good thing, too.

But a quadrillion dollars?  Umm, no. The entire wealth ever created by the entire human race, all through the history of time, is less than a quadrillion. The total output of the USA is some $14 or so trillion, of the whole global economy is around $50 trillion a year.  We ain’t got to the point where there is a quadrillion (1,000 trillion) of wealth existing, ever, in total, everywhere, so it cannot have been destroyed by one storm in one place.

Lawyers, I blame lawyers.