NEW ORLEANS — The Sewerage and Water Board has two major turbines not working and that has caused widespread flooding on city streets as upwards of 4-5 inches of rain fell in some parts of the city overnight.
The Sewerage and Water Board said that Turbine 4 went off Saturday morning in the middle of the intense rain and that Turbine 5 has been unavailable since last month due to “auxiliary pump issues.”
S&WB followed up that release with a Saturday afternoon warning that the over 100-year-old Turbine 4 would be out until further notice.
"Without turbines 4 and 5 available, any intense rain will cause street flooding," the Sewerage and Water Board said Saturday afternoon. "Turbine 4 was built in 1915."
S&WB said Saturday afternoon that Turbine 5 is expected to come back on within 10 days.
The S&WB says it is using power from frequency converters and EMDs to power pumps. WWL Louisiana Investigator David Hammer says that "EMDs are the Electro-Motive Diesel generators installed as backups in 2018 after turbine failure led to major citywide flooding in August 2017."
In addition pumping stations 1,2, 6 & 7 are running at reduced capacity. The pump at Drainage Pumping Station 12 is also down but crews are working on getting that back up as soon as possible.
“If no more rain falls this morning, crews anticipate that streets will be clear by noon,” said the S&WB in an email to the news media. “With Turbines 4 and 5 down, high intensity rain is going to cause localized street flooding. SWBNO.”
Story continues under video of Paul Murphy reporting from Lakeview
WWL Louisiana Meteorologist Alexa Trischler says the heaviest of the rain should be over but there will be passing showers throughout the morning and that if one lingers over an already saturated area, there could be addition street flooding.
According to information on the Sewerage and Water Board site, as of Friday, DPS 3 at Florida Avenue near Hwy 90 was out of service due to “replacement of bearing housing unit.”
Here is the information on the status of DPS pumps from the S&WB site as of Friday, December 1.
Details of pump status:
- DPS 3 on Florida Ave near Hwy 90: D Pump out of service due to replacement of bearing housing unit.
- 4 addtional drainage pumps available at this station + 2 constant duty pumps
- DPS 10 at Haynes Blvd. and Shubrick Ave. at Citrus Canal: No. 1 Pump out of service
- 3 additional drainage pumps available at this station
- DPS 13 near Tall Timbers Algiers: No. 4 Pump on standby for Emergency Use Only.
- 5 additional drainage pumps available at this station + one constant duty pump
- DPS 17 near Florida Ave. and Peoples: Pumps A & D out of service due to issues with the electric motor.