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.