N.O. is finally dry of floodwaters says Corps of Engineers

[sunny]

from wwltv.com

didn't take quite as long as they thought.


N.O. is finally dry of floodwaters says Corps of Engineers

01:21 PM CDT on Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Associated Press

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday that it has finished pumping the New Orleans metropolitan area dry of flooding from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, 43 days after the first of the two storms struck south Louisiana.

The initial flooding was caused by water surging over levees on the east side of New Orleans and breaking through a couple of others. At its worst, the flooding left standing water over 80 percent of the city.

"Of course there will be a little puddle here and there, but as far as accessibility goes everything is pumped out," Corps spokeswoman Lauren Solis said. "We feel like that part of our job is done."

Much of the water had been pumped out from Katrina when Rita caused tidal surges that dumped more water into New Orleans' 9th Ward, near an industrial canal on the east side of the city.

The areas drained includes portions of St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes that are inside the levee system southeast of New Orleans.

Solis said temporary repairs to the levees that broke along the 17th Street and London Avenue canals also are nearly complete. Other temporary repairs have been done to levees that broke because of erosion that occurred when water ran over the top of them.

The job of getting the water out and patching the levees was handled by a Corps task force led by Col. Duane Gapinski. Another task force, led by Col. Lewis Setliff, has begun rebuilding the levees to the condition they were in prior to Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall in southeast Louisiana on Aug. 29.

That work is scheduled to be finished by June 1, when the next hurricane season begins.

For now, there are no plans to rebuild the levees stronger than before. The Corps must get approval from Congress before such work could begin.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[HurryKane]

Interesting. I bet Michoud still pretty wet. This is what it looked like October 2nd, last weekend:

Intersection of Michoud and Six Flags Parkway:


Michoud Blvd:


Shallow end of the Six Flags parking lot (it got up to mid thigh on us at the deep end)


Gates to Six Flags to where we'd slogged across the parking lot:

[Dick Pache]

Public Affairs Office, Task Force Hope - New Orleans Update Call 504-862-1645 or 1646
NEW ORLEANS - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans has nearly pumped the metro area dry and continues to increase interim levee protection to plus 10-feet elevation.
Eight helicopters placed nearly 1,000 bags yesterday in the Citrus Lands area of Plaquemines Parish, and closing nearly 90 percent of the smaller breaches at Citrus South. After five days of placing sandbags and stone, the Scarsdale breach is still 12- to 18-feet deep. The breach may take another 4,000 sandbags to fill, though the Corps is investigating other methods of filling the breach, such as sinking a barge at the site.
Task Force Unwatering is pumping approximately 1,818 cfs out of Plaquemines Parish. Corps’ Memphis District teams continue to operate mobile pumps in the parish.
The Corps’ environmental team was also in Plaquemines Parish today and will be there again tomorrow to assess the situation there.
In St. Bernard Parish, repairs to the hurricane protection levee along the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet Canal have begun with levee foundation preparation. Corps’ contractors are also continuing maintenance work at pump stations here to ensure long-term operations.
Homes in the Michou subdivision, East Orleans Parish, are all out of water and roads are accessible despite some water on the ground. The Corps is providing debris teams the locations of downed trees that are blocking access to some parts of the area.
Pump Station 15 is back on the electrical power grid and all three pumps will be operating soon, Corps officials say. Unwatering operations may be completed in the area today or tomorrow.
In Orleans Parish, the canal closure at the 17th Street Canal has been opened 40 feet, but the London Avenue Canal closure is still in place. Contractors are placing dense-grade aggregate on the south breach along the east side of the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal.
Corps contractors plan to have two of seven pumps operable at Pump Station 5 in the next two weeks or so. Up until recently water was naturally draining to St. Bernard Parish Pump stations’ 1 and 6, but lower water and debris is now preventing flow. German teams are operating temporary pumps at sites throughout Orleans Parish, including at Pump Station 5. Two pumps were delivered to Pump Station 5 and a third pump is being transported there.
Engineers also set out more temporary pumps in Terrebonne Parish and began those pumping operations today.
http://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/hurricane/chr.php