The city of New Orleans will hire an independent team of engineers to evaluate the problems that led to severe flooding following an Aug. 5 rainfall of up to 10 in. The decision followed the revelation that 16 of the city’s pumps were not working, despite claims the system was at capacity. Further, the power system that operates those pumps was severely crippled.
At an Aug. 10 emergency meeting, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D) received approval to purchase equipment to repair the pumps, install 26 emergency generators and hire a third-party team to evaluate the problems and provide interim oversight of Sewerage and Water Board operations. Realizing that SWB has long-standing infrastructure problems, Landrieu says, “What I do not understand is that we did not make provisions to provide redundancy.”