NEW ORLEANS – More than nine years after the levees broke during Hurricane Katrina and flooded New Orleans, residents and businesses finally can ask for some compensation – albeit small – from a $14 million settlement fund set up to pay for the catastrophic flood.

The payouts, though, will be meager and far from what residents may have hoped for after their city was devastated in 2005.

Hopes for hefty damage payments were dashed in the years after the hurricane when lawsuits suing the Army Corps of Engineers were defeated in federal court. The courts held that the federal agency was protected from liability by a 1928 law that gave the agency immunity from suits seeking damages over failed flood-control projects.

Under this settlement, residents, businesses and people visiting the city when Katrina struck can apply now for compensation. The money comes from insurance policies the levee boards had at the time of Katrina. Claims must be filed by April 30, 2015.