And because.......HURRICANE SEASON.
But they are still working on 'em.
From the New Orleans Advocate:
Aug 24, 2017 - 9:17 am
Landrieu updates New Orleans pumps, says 'more clarity' to come ahead of Hurricane Harvey
Officials still do not have a clear idea of the city's drainage capacity as Hurricane Harvey barrels toward the Texas coast, likely sending heavy bands of rain over New Orleans this weekend.To paraphrase Wilde's great line* from The Importance of Being Earnest:
More information about exactly how much water the S&WB's pumps can remove from the city, and how fast, is expected tomorrow morning, the day Harvey will make landfall, Mayor Mitch Landrieu said during a morning press conference.
Landrieu remained vague about what circumstances could trigger an evacuation.
Though far from New Orleans itself, Harvey is expected to drop between 5 inches and 10 inches of rain on the city, and possibly twice that in some areas, Landrieu said.
That could cause flooding even in the best of circumstances, Landrieu said. But with more than a dozen S&WB drainage pumps offline and only two of the five turbines that power them running, the impacts of heavy rains could be devastating.
Landrieu said officials still do not know what the city's current pumping capacity is with 15 of its 120 pumps offline but said engineers are expected to provide an estimate on Friday.
The city's normal plans call for an evacuation if a Category 3 hurricane is set to strike....MORE
To lose the City once to a hurricane may be regarded as a misfortune;
to lose it twice looks like carelessness.
*************
Jack. I have lost both my parents.
Lady Bracknell. To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness. Who was your father? He was evidently a man of some wealth. Was he born in what the Radical papers call the purple of commerce, or did he rise from the ranks of the aristocracy?
-Act I, scene II
