Katrina: What Can $3 Quadrillion Buy You?

Traditionally, when a plaintiff seeks compensation, the common adage in the legal world is to "aim high and negotiate down."

So now an unidentified individual, who filed their complaint from a trailer park community in Baker, Louisiana, is suing the government for the astronomical fee of three quadrillion dollars -- that's fifteen zeroes.

It looks something like this: $3,000,000,000,000,000. Yeah, I know what you're thinking; Dr. Evil didn't even ask for that much!!!

Other Hurricane Katrina victims have also estimated the costs of their loses in claims to the federal government with some comparatively surreptitious figures (only 247 claims for at least $1 billion a piece). So far, 489,000 claims have been filed totaling $3,014,170,389,176,410, keep the change.

Whether they're bogus or delusional made claims, there is symbolism in that the government cannot pay enough money for the amount of suffering and losses it could have prevented, had the levees been secure.

Of those seeking money is the city of New Orleans, which has filed a claim for $77 billion dollars. Others on the list include insurance companies, businesses and wrongful death complaints.

With over 1,600 deaths reported in Louisiana and Mississippi, the memory of the storm is still fresh in the minds of many. The storm, which destroyed homes and crippled many businesses in the Gulf Coast states has costs billions.

Despite the fact that the deadline set by the US army Corps to coincide with the passing of the second anniversary of Katrina has passed already, claims are still arriving and being accepted.

The Corps said it isn't passing judgment on the merits of each claim. Federal courts are in charge of deciding if a claim is valid and how much compensation is warranted.

"It's important to the person who filed it, so we're taking every single claim seriously," Corps spokeswoman Amanda Jones said. According to the Associated Press.

And if you were wondering, the Gross National Product of the US is only $13.2 trillion dollars, so no, it would not be possible to accommodate a $3 quadrillion dollar claim. You know... just in case you were curious.