NEW ORLEANS — Inches of rain pooled under I-10 Monday and caused 30 minutes of standstill traffic. With three pumping stations right near I-10 long the Orleans, Jefferson Parish line, why did it flood?
New information shows there were more pumps offline than we were first told.
According to Sewerage and Water Board, three large pumps at DPS I-10 were not working. They say only one smaller pump was on, which was the one that’s on all the time, no matter the weather.
According to the Executive Director of Sewerage and Water Board, Ghassan Korban, there was an electrical malfunction with the sensors.
“We have three major pumps that run on automatic sensors that run based on the gauge and the level of water that falls in that area. Unfortunately, that sensor did not work and the pumps did not turn on,” Korban said on WWL radio Thursday. “We checked that about four months ago and it was operable and functioning fine.”
Also, two out of three pumps at the Pontchartrain Station, not far from DPS I-10, clicked offline for a little bit. Korban says the amount of rain overwhelmed the system.
“Something is always bound to not function 100 percent,” Korban said.
Councilmember Joe Giarrusso agrees.
“Fingers have to be on everything and unfortunately, because the system is so old, you have to apply Murphy’s Law, something is going to go wrong and I think it just requires a lot of attention to make sure you’re getting it right,” Giarrusso said.
But, he doesn’t want residents to have to worry every time there’s rain. With an aging system he says we need to find ways to better manage the infrastructure.
“You need to think about both the green and the gray side all the time. so on the green side what do we need to do to retain more water, where does it make sense to hold that water? Jefferson Parish also floods certain places on purpose. if we have to flood parks or other places that aren’t being used then let’s think about all those things then you’re going to have to do gray things as you’re building up the green to make it happen,” Giarrusso said.