Mayor, City Officials Announce Testing of Damaged Sewerage & Water Board Turbine to Bring Online

Tonight, Mayor Mitch Landrieu and City officials announced that the Sewerage and Water Board has begun testing the turbine damaged in last night’s incident to determine if it’s ready to be brought fully online.

Last night, the Sewerage & Water Board lost service to one of its power turbines, leaving only one turbine and Entergy power as the remaining power source. As a result, the system’s capacity to drain stormwater from the streets is diminished for the East Bank of New Orleans, west of the Industrial Canal. Pumping stations in Algiers, New Orleans East and Lower Ninth Ward have diesel generators and therefore will not be impacted in this event. 

Sewerage & Water Board and GE crews worked  through the night last night and today to repair the turbine and to secure backup power to restore power to drainage pumping stations to the impacted portion of the city. In addition, the City has ordered additional generators and portable diesel-powered pumps to assist in maintaining pumping capacity in the event of a loss of Entergy power during a large rain event. The City has ordered a total of 26 generators which have started to arrive. The timeframe to install and configure the generators will be assessed upon arrival, but could take several days.

This morning, Mayor Mitch Landrieu signed a declaration of emergency for the City of New Orleans and Governor John Bel Edwards signed an emergency declaration the State of Louisiana as well. The local disaster declaration allows for more flexible strategy and purchasing of assets needed in emergencies.

If all of the power from Entergy continues, the City will be able to handle typical rainfall. Out of an abundance of caution, the City is urging residents in the affected area to move their vehicles to higher ground, take necessary actions to protect personal property, and stay off of roadways during rainstorms unless an emergency makes it absolutely necessary to do so. 

Residents should call 911 to report street flooding and life-threatening emergencies. Residents are advised to remain indoors during heavy rainfall. Residents should call 311 for non-emergency services and general information.

The Orleans Parish School Board has announced that all schools will continue to be closed on Friday, Aug. 11.

At this time, drinking water and sewerage services for all of the city are unaffected by this outage.

The City will keep residents updated through email alerts and Twitter @NOLAReady.