NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Heavy rainfall in New Orleans, coupled with another failure of the city’s frail and antiquated power supply to its drainage pumps, led to another costly round of street flooding Saturday night (Feb.) and a Sunday of post-flood cleanup for many.
The scenario was nearly identical to a round of extreme street flooding that followed a heavy rainstorm on Dec. 2. This time it came in the midst of carnival season.
Saturday’s widespread street flooding was attributed by the Sewerage & Water Board to an excessive amount of rain over a few hours and the emergency shutdown of Turbine 4 “due to a mechanical issue,” which reduced pumping capacity when it was most needed.
The utility still has not detailed the mechanical problem that affected Turbine 4, nor said how long the 109-year-old turbine will be offline. In the Dec. 2 flood of the city, the S&WB said Turbines 4 and 5 were inoperative because of mechanical and power issues.
“We are making progress on our power complex, which will be a shift away from these older turbines to a modern, reliable power source for our drainage system,” the S&WB said in a statement.
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“If there’s a flood every five minutes, not even for a hurricane, that’s gonna make everybody in the state’s insurance go up,” resident Ahmad Ordu told Fox 8 Sunday while checking on his vehicles after the flood.
“I got to see if it actually turns on,” Ordu said. “Hopefully, it turns on. If it doesn’t turn on ... I’m going to need a ride from y’all.”
Flood-weary business owners in New Orleans also are questioning whether staying in the city is worth it.
Kim Krivjanick owns Ricard’s, a janitorial chemicals and supplies company on North Broad Street. She says in addition to being a longtime owner of the business, she also lives in the back of the property. She says that since 2017, her property on Broad Street near the Lafitte Greenway has flooded eight times.
“On Dec. 2, we had the same occurrence as well,” Krivjanick said. “This is a regular occurrence. Whenever we are expecting rain, I’m preparing to flood.”
Krivjanick spent hours Sunday cleaning up trash and debris left behind around her store and says it paints a bad picture for the city and visitors who have to look at it.
“Look, between insurance and property taxes going up as it is, and then still having to deal with issues, I feel by now we should have some sort of grip on this,” she said.
Krivjanick said that she’s thought about moving her home and business out of the property and putting the space up for rent. She said she doesn’t want to do that, because of her love of her community, but the financial impacts of the frequent flooding is making it difficult to stay.
The widespread flooding also affected the city’s service industry during one of its busiest times of the year.
On Orleans Avenue in Treme, storied Cajun and Creole restaurant Gabrielle is no stranger to flooding.
The business closed in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina forced it to shutter, but owners made a comeback 12 years later in 2017, opening their doors to tourists and locals alike.
However, during Saturday night’s dinner rush, they had to cease operations due to being flooded out while serving guests.
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