NEW ORLEANS — A new high-tech monitoring system is being rolled out to help monitor water levels. Sonar sensors will be placed in canals across our city to give residents and officials real-time info on how high the water is getting during severe weather.
Chesnique Phillips-Terry says if bad weather is coming, she wants to be prepared, she told WWL Louisiana, "The past couple of years the storms have been worse and even if it's not hurricane season, we have storms."
She went on to say, "I just want to make the best decisions for my family, so having information and tools to make that decision will be great."
A partnership between United Way of Southeast Louisiana, Verizon, and a tech company called Hyfi allows Phillips-Terry and other New Orleanians to do just that.
New stormwater sensors will provide residents and city officials with real-time information about flood conditions. Hyfi Co-founder Brandon Wong says this technology could allow people to check on their loved ones during bad weather from the palm of their hand.
"They send out a ultrasonic frequency sound pulses to detect the distance from the sensor to the water line and as that water line changes the sensors sends that out over the wireless network like Verizon's to say your cell or an app, that then folks can understand where the flooding is occurring," Wong said.
He says there'll be 50 sensors installed in canals and on light and utility poles across the city.
Wong said, "Each one of these monitors costs about $1,500 a year... Overall when we're looking at a network of 20 sensors that's about $30,000 or when we're looking at 50, that's about $75,000 a year."
At a public information session, Phillips-Terry and other members of the community learned about the new technology. She said, "It allows for you to better plan and prepare if you decide if you want to stay or if you're going to evacuate, especially because we have a young child."
Verizon is funding this portion of the plan, after that, the hope is it'll be adopted by the City of New Orleans.
So far two sensors have been installed.
Collin Arnold with the City's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness said in a statement, they're, "Excited to work with Hyfi to provide water sensors around the city. We will be able to utilize this information to better respond to street flooding issues during heavy rain and flooding events as well as gather the data from the sensors to work with infrastructure partners like the Sewerage and Water Board and our Hazard Mitigation team to plan future projects to mitigate repetitive flooding issues in the future. We appreciate Verizon and the United Way of Southeast Louisiana for their partnership in this project."
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