Soggy New Orleans looks warily at forecast
Flash flood overwhelms city’s drainage, pumping systems as residents brace for more
NEW ORLEANS— With debris from last weekend’s flash flood still piled up on sidewalks and their city under a state of emergency, New Orleans residents on Friday looked ahead warily to the prospect of more rain to tax the city’s malfunctioning pump system.
The city scrambled to repair firedamaged equipment at a power plant and shore up its drainage system less than a week after a flash flood from torrential rain overwhelmed the city’s pumping system and inundated many neighbourhoods.
Annie Hutchins says she’s “traumatized” every time she sees clouds in the sky since an Aug. 5 flood. She had to walk through knee-high water to get to her house in the Treme neighbourhood.
“It’s a little bit unnerving that we were told everything was working, and the next day the story was a little bit different and then the next day the story was a lot different,” she said.
“I’m the kind of person that trusts anyone until they prove otherwise. So, I don’t feel like I have a lot of reason to trust what I’m being told anymore.”
Acontrol panel on one of two working turbines had been fixed by Friday morning, but the system remains well below full power, Mayor Mitch Landrieu said at a morning news conference. The turbine powers some of the city’s pumps.
“We remain at risk until additional turbines are back up,” Landrieu said, adding he hopes that will happen by the end of the month. Still, he said, “Panic is not where we need to be right now.”
He said the latest to go offline will be powered up over 24 hours. Meanwhile, Landrieu said, 26 generators have been ordered and will remain through hurricane season.
He also said a location was being set up Friday for residents to get sandbags should they want to take the extra precaution of sandbagging their homes.
Schools closed for the week and the mayor urged residents to park their cars on high ground.
Gov. John Bel Edwards described his emergency declaration Thursday as a precautionary measure.
The National Weather Service forecast a 60-per-cent chance of rain Friday, primarily during the late morning and afternoon, with a chance that heavy rainfall could lead to more flooding.
The city’s infrastructure had been crumbling for years before the devastation unleashed in 2005 by levee breaches in hurricane Katrina’s aftermath. The federal government earmarked billions of dollars for repairs and upgrades after the hurricane, but the problems have persisted.
Streets are pockmarked with potholes and sinkholes. The city’s water system has been plagued by leaks from broken pipes and power outages leading to boil water advisories to be issued.