New Orleans Official Blamed Flooding On ‘Climate Change,’ But Broken Pumps Were To Blame

dailycaller.com ^ | Aug. 10, 2017 | MICHAEL BASTASCH

[PROCON]

New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board director Cedric Grant blamed widespread flooding over the weekend on “climate change,” but it wasn’t long before news broke that broken water pumps were actually to blame.

Throughout the week, media reports have shown that New Orleans’s antiquated water pumping system failed to keep flooding at bay, and the problem hasn’t been resolved.

The mayor’s office warned Thursday morning a fire had taken out a turbine that powers most water pumping stations in the East Bank of New Orleans.

With more heavy rain forecast for this week, Mayor Mitch Landrieu is asking residents to prepare for flooding.

[junta]

Lived in Audobon Park for a little less than a year, decent place but I walked over to the river levee on day and noticed what looked like the river was higher than my living side. I say let the gators have it back

[joma89]

More #FakeNews, otherwise known as lying, and this time from someone other than a news outlet.

JoMa

[umgud]

I wouldn’t live in a city where my not being flooded was dependent on a gov’t employee.

[Calvin Locke]

Ah, but when did the fire do the damage? Wednesday night? on a Wednesday, a year or two ago?

[Kenton]

Know your city officials.

Oh. A negro. I sure am glad he wasn't a white man, or this would be a big disaster worthy of an extensive investigation.

Well, wait a minute. Trump's a white man. This happened because... Trump.

[canalabamian]

I guess those Confederate statues weren’t such a big problem after all. FNOLA.

[Bayan]

If you made this stuff up, no one would believe you. How many dysfunctional cities does it take to demonstrate that Democrats are incapable of governing.

[minnesota_bound]

#31 The new Atlantis.....

[DPMD]

If we can’t blame climate change, how will Fat Albert Gore make any money off the disaster?

[deport]

I think New Orleans was originally above water.

*************

Yep. The following article explains some of the reasons much of the city
is now below sea level.

snip:

By the 1930s, a metropolis that originally lay above sea level saw one-third of
its land surface sink below that level.

By the 2000s, roughly half of the metropolis was below sea level — by 3 to 6 feet
in parts of Broadmoor, 5 to 8 feet in parts of Lakeview and Gentilly, and 6 to 12 feet
in parts of Metairie and New Orleans East.

http://www.nola.com/homegarden/index.ssf/2015/02/shifting_doorframes_cracking_d.html

[JohnBovenmyer]

North America (I say that rather than the US as N.O. was established by French and Spanish before US came along) needed to have a major port somewhere near the end of its greatest navigable river. At establishment, N. O. was the least bad place to put it. Navigation into the lake was easier than from the actual river mouth and this was the narrowest strip of land across which to portage cargo upstream. And there was sufficient high ground (the French Quarter) to house the originally needed population. Growth soon exceeded the available high ground, but at every step of the way, by short term cost calculations it was cheaper to defend the existing infrastructure with levees, canals and pumps than to abandon it and start from scratch on high ground far enough upstream. Just how far upstream would be "safe" is probably much farther than most would think — review the awesome lower Mississippi flood in the 1920s. And there would be higher cost maintaining an adequate shipping channel that far upstream. And you have to factor in the likelihood that the river's main channel will shift westward in which case you might have to move the port again.

It is thus at least arguable that having a port and a community to support it makes sense at the site of N.O. until the river abandon's it, albeit not so large a community. But the implementation of its flood defenses have long been victimized by the local brand of corrupt politics. Katrina's fix for that hasn't been allowed to stand. They reconstructed housing on the lower land for the lower class voting block. Without that housing the electorate of a downsized N.O. would have been different and what was left might have been more competently defended.

[ptsal]

A dollar will getcha two, but I’d guess there will be a follow-up story about this fellow and his management of the $$$.

[Bullish]

It must be so easy to be a moron, simpleton liberal.

[JohnBovenmyer]

Ah, but when did the fire do the damage? Wednesday night? on a Wednesday, a year or two ago?

Yes, and Yes and more.

The local press there reviewed this and it is an OLD story. Because N.O. sits mostly below sea level behind levees in heavy rains it fills up and must be pumped out. The pumps mostly predate WWII. Most were designed to run on 25Hz power and they had a dedicated power plant to produce that for them. There were originally 5 turbines generating 25Hz power. Turbine #6, generating 60Hz power was added later to power other functions and as a backup. #6 is, as of Wednesday, the only turbine operational and it's not properly suited for the pumps. In principle 60Hz power can be converted to and from 25Hz. But would a system designed with 5 sources of 25Hz have in place the capacity to convert enough 60Hz to run everything, either from #6 or from the grid? I doubt it and I doubt enough conversion capacity can be added quickly.

So what happened to #1-5? Original #2 was mothballed "decades ago" for reasons I don't now. #4 was damaged in Katrina and is STILL being refurbished with EDT of December! #4 and #5 went down in May and July respectively and are still under repair. #1 went down to a fire Wednesday. So obviously the panicking should have started in May, at the latest, when one failed and the remaining two were thus being pushed harder.

Mr. Mayor, who's president of the board in charge of the system and who hand picked most of its membership bragging he'd fix things, is now trying to deflect any responsibility onto 'the board.' Happily that deflection doesn't seem to be working well in the press. However, I haven't seen a political breakdown on who was affected by the recent flooding. His anti-statue base may not respond to anything less than personal sink or swim lessons.

[JimRed]

And money intended to maintain the levees spent stolen for political patronage.

[ExSES]

I once worked with a female executive who succinctly described Louisiana's Government...., "Just do what your told..., leave the tax/grant money on the stump in the swamp and RUN..., don't look back"

[ClearBlueSky]

As a native watching this locally, daily, I can assure you it only confirms what most have known-S&WB and city government is a joke. Thing is, no one cared as long as they could fest and party as usual(except for hurricanes). Now daily rain can flood streets, homes and businesses and that we have been lied to for years is now undeniable.The only chance N.O. had to 'fix' things was when Katrina emptied the city.That's when the streets and underground pipes could have been dug up. Almost all are ancient. When I lived in Lakeview I saw the sewer pipe to my home dug up. It was CLAY and broken in many places. CLAY! N.O. is fighting geography(sinking), weather and politics. Politicians CAN'T admit its a no-win situation when there are careers and lots of $$ and contracts at stake. The street workers 'fixing' drains and such are unqualified, lazy and(in some cases) criminal. Many have been caught stealing hundreds of thousands worth of copper and brass parts from S&WB. Perhaps parts of these pumps? The supervisors know this, but that's what demographics gives them as workers. So, they cover up and shut up to keep their jobs. All the way up the line!

Imagine if it were a tropical storm approaching-streets and interstate ramps flooded. Contraflow takes on a whole new meaning.

Look, N.O. is a sinking city built on a sponge, floating on & surrounded by water with water falling on it from the sky. Nature fills in holes. You can't beat it, or time, and now every dark storm cloud is a threat. Mitch is dancing on the Titanic-and he knows it. Trick is to keep the money coming in till the last minute.

[Calvin Locke]

... Katrina ...

Stupid question. Why didn't the NOLA pols press to have everything (pumping/support stations) brought up to modern standards while NOLA was recovering [while Congress was probably willing to most or all of it]?

[JohnBovenmyer]

GOOD question. I don't know. I'm interested in LA by the accident of having been born there while Dad was in Army and having enjoyed a few visits there since so have followed such as a hobby from a distance. I do know some of the pre-Katrina problems were fixed. Some pumps failed during Katrina because they were abandoned. Because they'd never spent money to build hurricane safe places for their necessary human operators. The pol in charge of that failure did get fired after Katrina and that insane oversight did get resolved post-Katrina. I don't know why all the essential stuff wasn't fixed then, but I bet it was because what got fixed was prioritized politically, not rationally.

The country knew N.O. well enough to NOT give it a complete blank check. The corrupt pols and the media were all concerned about restoring housing in places that never should have had housing for populations that could have as productively been welfared above sea level some where else. Not to mention the back pressures from the temporary 'elses' that soon wanted to give them back. Those voices were probably heard above the engineers who understood the hydrological realities and the tech needs to deal with them. My advice after Katrina, from a distance, was to follow an old, successful, precedent from the Galveston Flood: the low areas of that island were built up several feet with dredged fill over 20 years to where they were safe from flooding. Chicago offers a similar precedent, having been raised much higher in the 1800s to solve drainage problems. In N.O. they might add barged overburden from coal country to the fill. Declare large flooded areas total insurance losses and take the property for the 'insurance' payouts. Or let the current owners keep what would eventually be valuable land, but not interfere with it until the government upgrade was complete, for a smaller payout. They could sell or borrow off their rights at whatever prices the market provided.

[Svartalfiar]

The pumps, set up in drainage canals, transfer water into Lake Pontchartrain.

...Why? I'm not any kind of city planning engineer, but it seems to me it would make a lot more sense to pump the water into the river where it finishes passing the city... So all the water you add is running away from the city, not sitting next to it in a lake that already floods your city every couple weeks.