The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans is asking residents to continue conserving water to prevent sewage backup.
There are no issues with drinking water, but one of the city’s sewer stations in Gentilly is down.
Ghassan Korban, the utility’s executive director, explained how the system operated during hurricane Francine at the city’s press conference on Thursday.
“I think many things yesterday worked, and I really have to give a huge shout out to my staff who just all hands on deck all night long,” he said. “We know for a fact that some things didn't go right and we own up to it.”
Two drainage pump systems, one in West End and another in New Orleans East had brief disruptions. The system suffered a major setback when six drainage pumps stopped working at three stations Wednesday night. The diesel generators used to power them went down temporarily until the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans changed the power source.
The stations had other operating pumps that slowed down drainage until the utility was able to power them again.
“We don't think we impacted the elevation of the water or the flooding that happened in specific areas,” Korban told WWNO/WRKF. “Keeping in mind the amount of rain that fell during the event and the intensity of the rain was tremendous and that would have overwhelmed any system including ours, even if it was working 100%.”
Before Francine, the utility warned that its system could only handle 1 inch of rain in the first hour of the storm and a half inch every hour after that. Korban said they’re working on making the system more efficient.
“Some canals have some sedimentation so they're not flowing at their full capacity. Some pipes are not clean or days back,” he said.
He added that having more green infrastructure in the city is important.
“It really does validate and underscore our need as a city and a community to continue to invest in our utility and we definitely will,” said Mayor LaToya Cantrell, referring to the $29 million needed to finish the SWBNO’s new power complex.
