NEW ORLEANS — A line of heavy rain soaked the metro area with up to 7 inches of rain, causing street flooding in Orleans, Metairie and Slidell primarily, closing some streets and flooding a couple of cars.
Rain broke out before noon in Slidell, causing parts of Gause Blvd. to become impassable. The rains moved to the south shore, dropping seven inches of rain in parts of Lakeview, 5 inches in Mid-City and 4 in Gentilly.
The Sewerage and Water Board's rule of thumb is that its system can handle one inch of rain the first hour and a half an inch each hour after that.
I-10 was temporarily shut down in both directions near the underpass about a half a mile past the Orleans/Jefferson Parish line. Two drainage pumps that keep the underpass dry were tripped offline. A Sewerage and Water Board worker was able to get the pumps back online. The interstate was closed and traffic re-routed for about a half an hour.
There was flooding in the usual places. The underpass on Canal Blvd. near Navarre had several feet of water and at least one car was trapped in what the Sewerage and Water Board said was just over seven inches of rain in the area.
The city of New Orleans allowed neutral ground parking for cars until Tuesday at 8 a.m.
The rain comes after the area had been in a severe drought, with about half of the usual rainfall compared to a normal amount at this time of year.
WWL-TV's Chief Meteorologist Chris Franklin said the wet pattern over the Labor Day weekend would relent for a bit.