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Mon
Aug 14
2017
2:15 PM
S&WB Stormwater Pumping Capacity

Mayor Landrieu Provides Additional Sewerage and Water Board Update

Today, Mayor Mitch Landrieu and City officials provided an update on the status of the Sewerage and Water Board’s power generation and drainage systems in New Orleans. The turbine damaged on Wednesday night, Turbine #1, is running after being successfully repaired and gradually brought back online. All of the 26 generators ordered for additional capacity and redundancy have arrived and are being connected.Crews are still working to bring eighteen of these generators into service. This redundancy will remain throughout Hurricane Season. The City will update residents on generator deliveries and installations as information becomes available.

S&WB has brought in third-party technical assistance to establish a plan and process for how to return the three downed turbines to service; how to acquire additional equipment for backup power sources such as generators, transformers, feeders and other equipment; how to fix the broken pumps as soon as possible and to determine the true capacity of the working pumps. The City is also in the process of reallocating funds to increase our capacity to clean and repair more catch basins and drain lines.

DRAINAGE PUMPS

According to the S&WB, there are currently 103 of the 120 pumps available to be operational in the event of heavy rainfall. The 17 pumps that are out of service are being assessed for emergency repairs, and the pumps that are operational are being assessed to determine their capacity. At this time, five different contractors are beginning work around the clock to fix the pumps that are out of service. 

S&WB has posted a status update of the pumps on its website. In response to recent rain events on July 22 and August 5, S&WB has provided to the public Drainage Pumping Station Logs and the Central Control Log Book. Those items are available at www.swbno.org.

SANDBAGS AVAILABLE FOR PICK-UP

In anticipation of inclement weather today, sandbags are available at two new locations, the intersection of Elysian Fields Avenue and I-610, and S. Broad Avenue and Poydras Street. Sandbags are no longer being offered at Perdido Street and S. Lopez Street.

PREPARING FOR HIGH WATER

NOPD has staged barricades in the following areas prone to flooding, including under overpasses around the city. At this time, the City also has high water vehicles and other response vehicles on hand in the event that flooding occurs.

  • Paris Avenue and Gentilly Boulevard
  • St. Bernard Avenue at I-610
  • Franklin Avenue at I-610
  • Gentilly Boulevard and Peoples Avenue
  • Press Drive and Leon C. Simon Drive
  • Broad Street and A.P. Tureaud Street
  • City Park Pumping Station
  • Canal Boulevard and Navarre Street
  • Tulane Avenue and S. Carrollton Avenue
  • Metairie Road at I-10
VIEWING REAL-TIME TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS ONLINE

The City also unveiled Streetwise, a website for viewing real-time reports of flooding and accidents from 911 calls. To see where reported traffic accidents and street flooding are occurring, visit http://streetwise.nola.gov.

TURBINE POWER LOSS ON WED., AUGUST 9

On Wednesday, August 9, 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 crews worked 24-hour shifts to repair the turbine and to secure backup power to restore power to drainage pumping stations to the impacted portion of the city.

MAYOR SIGNS DECLARATION OF EMERGENCY

On August 10, 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.

CITY ADVISES RESIDENTS TO TAKE PRECAUTIONS 

If all of the power from Entergy continues, the City will be able to handle typical rainfall. However, the city remains at risk in the event of a major rain storm until additional turbines are brought back online. 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 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for non-emergency services and general information. 311 will maintain these hours daily at this time. The City’s Emergency Operations Center will remain open and staffed until further notice.

At this time, drinking water and sewerage services for all of the city are unaffected by this outage. The generators being secured will provide additional redundancy for those systems as well.

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

SCHOOLS

The Orleans Parish Schools (OPSB) and Recovery School District (RSD) have announced that school campuses opened starting today, Monday, August 14. In light of the city’s announcement that the Sewerage and Water Board (SWB) power turbine that was taken out of commission due to a fire has been fixed, school programs may resume as previously scheduled at all Orleans Parish school sites.

For a list of the first days of school for each campus head to http://opsb.us/2017/07/first-days-of-school-for-the-2017-18-school-year/.

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