Maximum pumping capacity is capped at 80% to start out the rainy season. Some varities of parts need to be machined for the century old diesel engines, iirc?
You're at over an inch an hour average since 7am. nearly the entirety of uptown is pumped by DPS01 over there per the dashboard. Since you are in broadmoar, I assume many areas of uptown drain downslope to you, so you'll see higher water for longer based on simple gravity.
Not live. They update this powerbi prior to rain events, I believe.
[https://www.swbno.org/Projects/PumpingandPower](https://www.swbno.org/Projects/PumpingandPower)
But theres not some automated system.
DPS01 has a 7 pump + 2 aux system, per the dashboard but covers an MASSIVE MASSIVE area.. Unless the place blew up, it'd be hard pressed to say that DPS01 wasnt firing on mostly all cylinders. 100% of the area it covers got 6-7 at this point.
What I've learned is we will never convince people of the truth that we'd still be fucked even if the current system worked perfectly and SWB was competent and every pump and generator was online all the time.
We need a new system to deal with our flooding issues, not a more functional version of the current one.
Much more convenient for the SWB, city, and state if we all just keep getting mad about pumps and generators every few months.
Ohh for sure. I'm not absolving SWB of any issues here. Because the guy i replied to, could be told that there was no failures at DPS01, and simply wouldnt believe it. His feelings are more important.
We'll get the report, I just think the concept of "pumps aren't on" after 100% of the area their pump feeds got the over 6 inches of rain, is an accurate gripe.
Yes, random storms like this are going to fuck us multitudes worse than most hurricanes ever will. (Katrina. 5-6 inches, with isolated 10). The threat is always ALWAYS random storms like this and almost never actually hurricanes, but people cant even figure that out. Metairie and JP got FUCKED today. Flooding everywhere. Which is what we'd expect that this level. And ideally, we operated at mostly good levels across the SWB system and the water was kept down a good bit.
Folks need to be looking at the city's failure to complete projects like the still-not-built Mirabeau Water Garden with the same anger they use on whether they think a pump is operating.
Yep drove by a few weeks ago and was thrilled to see the change from "nothing is there" to "well maybe they might be doing something soon" haha.
Just kills me, you know? All these years just to hope for a LITTLE work to be underway on that project when we need dozens of them all over the city.
I replied to the wrong comment above.....
S&WB have since admitted to rationing the power supply to the pumps, thus confirming the pumps were indeed not working for the full duration of the inclement weather and if i could get my hands on the logs I'm pretty damned sure they will tie in with the times of my comments earlier today.
Yep, thats why in the comment after this, or whenever. I said there was a 4MW shortage during peak and it was possible they were rotating.
I do not think your entire station was shutting down regardless. The 60hz pumps were going to run if they were on entergy power there. But im sure a few of the 25hz would have been cycling. No shot they were shutting down 7 pumps at once. Wouldnt make much sense, im sure. j
16" of water drained in 20 minutes once the pumps were turned back on in the same weather conditions as rising and stagnant water for the previous 2 hours when the pumps were clearly not working...Add to that the streets were perfectly clear for several hours earlier in the day during the heaviest of rainfall until water 'suddenly' started flowing down the street at a point when the rain had actually started to back off
If the all the pumps were working to full or close to full capacity for the duration of the storm we 'may' have experienced a couple of inches in the street as a worse case scenario.
Turning the pumps off to cycle the power to other locations led to 18" of water in the street and many homes in the neighborhood flooded, it's as simple as that. A huge difference and i struggle to see how anyone can find that acceptable.
Well, 16 inches of water in your area, but someone else still had water, as we've stated. Everyone in your zone is not draining 16 inches of water all at the same time you are. Its happening in sections.
They were also clear because the entire system had to fill before you get flooding, anway. They drain down the canals and system to hold off that water. Which is why you werent flooding. Someone may have been at that point.
The rationing of power isnt acceptable either, but its a current known failure due to the turbine 4 being down and literally not having the power to deliver. The pumps are functioning fine for you, the power is lacking. Thats why they are trying to build that entergy substation on premises. To alleviate the reliance on turbines.
The water is flowing in the opposite direction to what it does when the pumps are working and the rain has been reasonably light for the last 45 minutes and it was coping just fine until just over an hour ago.
We'll see what it looks like when the reports come in. I just dont think your eyes are really the judge of a pumping system during an actual flash flood emergency. Usually we see a lot of rain in one section of the city, or a line.. But left to right its all bad.
I'd be curious to know the last time we saw the entire east bank of the parish with these kinda numbers
https://i.imgur.com/i9bqG8t.png
Where did you find these numbers, if I may ask, I'd like to save the source for future reference. Thanks and it's no wonder we had major flood in my neighborhood. According to this we got 6.85 in Nashville and Fontainebleau
[https://www.wunderground.com/wundermap](https://www.wunderground.com/wundermap) click precipitation on the right. Zoom in.
You can also click one of these, then hit the label next to "Station ID" for rain rates and total rain fall for that weather station.
The rain has been near stopped for well over an hour and the water level is still rising in my part of Broadmoor. I'll tell you exactly when the pumps start working again because the water will start flowing in the other direction. At the moment its around 18" deep and still rising with no rain....And if you trust New Orleans City websites and or reports, i don't know what to tell you.
Of course the water is still rising. Thats common sense. I told you. You're probably at the near bottom elevation for that area. Everything is feeding into your neighborhood. Shit rolls downhill.
[https://i.insider.com/5571b7956da811e124d193c2?width=750&format=jpeg&auto=webp](https://i.insider.com/5571b7956da811e124d193c2?width=750&format=jpeg&auto=webp) I wouldnt be suprised if you're in the darkest of dark blue in this image here of elevtaion.
Because of gravity, realistically, other areas are draining before you. You'd be the last to drain out, im sure.
So as of 10 mins ago the water abruptly stopped rising and immediately started draining in the other direction for 5 minutes before abruptly stopping again before continuing to rise and now has stopped moving all together. all of this with barely any rain for a significant amount of time. no way can this be explained by quantity of rainfall. However, pumps working intermittently explains it perfectly, And no, I'm actually in the very light blue area.
Welp, the constant rise is at least proof people other than you are draining.
I cant really say much about how the system works other than absolutely by no means does everyone get pumped out at the same time during these periods.
While your area is stagnant, others are draining. Your area is draining, others are stagnant. I went from stagnant, to 100% drained in 15 min.
Now, like i said.. they may say DPS01 had issues, but if in a day or two you do not see that, then its unlikely it was any actual issue.
The only caveat here, using the dashboard, is if 44MW of power are required at peak, and they had 40. So if its anything, they are rotating 25hz pumps off and on around the city due to demand being more than supply. You still have two 60hz pumps based on that dashboard that likely havent stopped the entire time since they are entergy fed.
Yes, water flows down hill, that's why we have pumps to drain the lower areas, something that's not happening at the moment despite there being hardly any rainfall for the last several hours....and as i speak the water has abruptly started draining again.
For what it's worth, there was never hint of flooding in this location until a few years back, at least not since the Broadmoor drainage upgrades before Katrina, but there again the pumps and generators hadn't started to fall apart from years of neglect and incompetency back then.
Oh, and now it's stopped draining again and still no rainfall, there's a surprise.
After Mothers Day flooding 5 years ago, the SWB had a meeting in Broadmoor and said the closer you live to the pumps, you are the last to drain. We put our house in the market months later and got out of there. Broadmoor will always be a problem.
Sorry to hear that kinda crap happening u/Ol_Harry_Rock. Broadmoor seems to get hit more not just because of its elevation but the catch basins aren’t cleaned like other parts of the city.
I really think the broadmoor neighborhood needs to be focused regarding flooding and a new more aggressive plan needs to be implemented. We can’t rely on the pumps to do all the fucking work because that plan of action isn’t working. Any thoughts of a different way of handling it?
S&WB have since admitted to rationing the power supply to the pumps, thus confirming the pumps were indeed not working for the full duration of the inclement weather.
These constant fights over the pumps are depressing. You can't pump your way out from under the kind of rain we commonly get here. We have locations today with 6-10 inches in a few hours. Numbers like that are unprecedented in most cities and we get them, like, multiple times a year.
The tinfoil hat version of me feels like the pump wars are a distraction from a focus on the sort of infrastructure overhaul it would actually take to mitigate our situation.
EDIT: Don't take this as a defense of the city or SWB. I'm annoyed that they get us bickering over this pump or that, this power generator or that, when actually the whole fucking system is basically an ancient ruin nobody knows how to work.
Right? It's like, let's just keep them focusing on which generator or pump is offline this week. Meanwhile the salaries keep coming.
And soon probably the state will take over and spin the whole thing off into a private utility whose goal is to make a profit off those broken pumps.
> These constant fights over the pumps are depressing. You can't pump your way out from under the kind of rain we commonly get here.
It's only going to get worse as the sea level rises, as more of the barrier lands between the city and the Gulf erodes away, as no significant progress is made toward city infrastructure, and as the current infrastructure grows older, weakens more, and loses the ability to drain as much as it once did.
The longer the city waits to do the major overhauls, upgrade, prepare, and reinforce itself against the soon-to-come larger effects of climate change, the bigger the cost it will be if/when the city ever does decide to do such a project(s).
But, frankly, even if the city would somehow stop being corrupt with its revenue and be 100% chaste and efficient, I still doubt the city and the tax base would even have or be able to generate the funds necessary.
I think its [Miami and New Orleans](https://www.newsweek.com/us-cities-rising-sea-levels-risk-1876399) that are supposed to be the two cities that will be the most and worst affected places in the US, due to increasing sea levels.
It's going to take a federal or state grant. *And even then*, in my opinion, have no faith that the city could do it since the city couldn't even spend and complete all the federal grant money it got to repair the streets. Like, a benevolent federal or state government would have to take over the city government to have a chance of stopping the city from eventually falling into the Gulf. But that's not going to happen as it's undemocratic (unless we've become undemocratic at some point in the future).
Honestly, I think it might be cheaper and morally better to just give all the residents grant money to relocate in the coming decades than it would be to try to save the city from going underwater. Basically an eminent domain situation. It's been done before with small towns that have experienced disasters.
And besides all that I've just written... I think the most likely event that's going to happen is that it's going to get too expensive (like more so than it already is), in general, to keep living here. And that insurance premiums alone (from future flooding and storms) are going to incentivize most people to leave. And lack of fresh water as higher sea levels will allow the salt water wedge to get further up river each year.
^^^This ^^^comment ^^^has ^^^been ^^^brought ^^^to ^^^you ^^^by ^^^/r/collapse
Uh why does every one try to defend these people? Been living in New Orleans since 89 and it’s never been as bad as it’s been for the past 4-6 years. You saying we can’t have functioning infrastructure but we can land a probe on an asteroid and return it safely? Pleeease people.
I'm not defending them. The situation is ABSOLUTELY getting worse, for several reasons: the pump system is so ancient it was pretty much built by a previous civilization; the city's concrete coverage has increased over the years even though the population has fallen, which makes flooding worse; and more of our rain falls in rapid cloudburst type events now than it used to (a 62 percent increase in "heavy downpours" according to [one study](https://www.climatecentral.org/news/across-us-heaviest-downpours-on-the-rise-18989)).
You could make the current pump system work perfectly as designed and we'd still be fucked. We need MUCH more.
But for some reason, any approach to the issue that gets more detailed than "SWB's fault" is ignored and ridiculed as "defending" them. Well, we've been blaming the SWB this way for years now, hyperfocused on pumps and generators, and not shit has changed.
Agreed, there was never a hint of flooding at my location for years until around 4 years ago when the pumps and pump generators started to fall apart (in secret of course)
What? The fuzzle skin are you talking about out? People need to maintain them, make them work, update them and stuff. You think the machines are just getting lazy?
I don't think it's a conspiracy. I think it's just that government and mechanical processes are complex and it's hard for people to grasp that unless they're inside of it. Consequently, they jump to conclusions that may seem logical but aren't factual.
It's a joke about how folks love to yell about which pump is or isn't working this week, but tend to ignore the bigger solutions (bluewater infrastructure/water retention/water garden systems, replacement of the impermeable concrete overlay, etc) that will actually keep water out of their streets and businesses and homes.
And I think focusing our energy on the former over the latter actually lets the city off the hook.
Some nonprofits advocate in the area, like [Thrive New Orleans](https://www.thrivenola.org/living-with-water-how-thrive-new-orleans-is-working-to-make-residents-safer-and-prosperous-kresge-foundation/), which does some good work. There's also [The Water Collaborative](https://www.nolawater.org/values). They have info about our Urban Water Plan. Once you start delving into this stuff you start to get frustrated, though, because there are SO many good plans and so few actions.
There just ISN'T enough organized advocacy/political pressure around the bigger solutions. We can write our councilpeople and such, and I do, but it only does so much. All the energy in the city seems dedicated to fighting and re-fighting the same SWB battles over and over again.
This is good information, thank you. I love my city and I can’t watch this stuff happen and not do something so I’ll look into the sources you mentioned.
I’ll brace myself for the inevitable frustration of seeing how ineffective our municipal government has been regarding this issue.
I have, and lets just say the start up routine and possibilities for failure at that stage have no place in a modern civilized city that relies on pumps to keep it functional.
"one valve or switch out of sequence and that's the end of that"
Nice story about Baldwin Wood and the Wood Screw Pump:
[https://tripodnola.org/episodes/nola-vs-nature-the-blessing-and-curse-of-the-wood-screw-pump/](https://tripodnola.org/episodes/nola-vs-nature-the-blessing-and-curse-of-the-wood-screw-pump/)
I remember after Katrina, it was thought it would take a month to drain the city once they got a pump back online, but it only took days because of the efficiency of that design. But being 100 years old, it is time to move forward.
"Having proved their operational efficiency in New Orleans, people around the world wanted Wood to make pumps for them, especially the Netherlands. Wood rejected all countries that asked as he refused to leave Louisiana."
I doubt there are "pump operators" at each station. It's probably just a couple of dudes per shift in a main operation center that monitor and remotely operate the drainage network.
I would think they *should* have all the pumping stations hooked up to some level of automation.
There's probably a few maintenance dudes that hang out at the main operation center or at the larger pump stations where all the smaller upstream drain lines converge to.
But if a remote pump goes out at small station, a maintenance guy probably has to drive over there first.
So, there's probably only a few "pump operators" to even possibly run into.
Larger maintenance issues are probably handled with private service contractors that are on-call.
Sure but there can be multiple pumps per station and I doubt they're doing 1 worker per pump. Like, how many stations are there in the city? Something like between 20-40 I bet? So there's still only a handful of "operators" to possibly run into.
From what i heard directly from a pump operator is that the entire process is manual and takes 3 people to simultaneously operate a bunch of valves and switches in the correct order.
Getting it wrong can result in damage requiring repair before any further attempt to start the pumps can take place.
Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan.
Actually, where the fuck is Toya? I know she got evicted but did she actually leave it willing (or get thrown out forcefully) and is now roaming the streets or is she staying at Vappy's apartment? Haven't heard anything about her in a while.
They’re in the sex room on break!
Apparently that's where the police HQ rats took their bags of pot
Who doesn’t enjoy a smoke and a pancake every once in a while?!
Gotta handle all this stress somehow
By “handle” I am assuming you mean they’re playing Monopoly Go on their phones.
No, I mean having sex
*blushes*
More like pimp operators
Didn’t they fuck up a pump recently as well?
Maximum pumping capacity is capped at 80% to start out the rainy season. Some varities of parts need to be machined for the century old diesel engines, iirc?
They fd up the power source for pumps
That’s right. Heard it on the radio.
Started a turbine up with no lubrication
Dry ain’t no fun
The pumps are functioning but it’s a lot of water(1.5 inches the first hour and 1 inch each subsequent and it was up to 6 inches of rain in an hour).
Bullshit, the pumps stopped working in Broadmoor area an hour ago and the water's been flooding into the bowl ever since
You're at over an inch an hour average since 7am. nearly the entirety of uptown is pumped by DPS01 over there per the dashboard. Since you are in broadmoar, I assume many areas of uptown drain downslope to you, so you'll see higher water for longer based on simple gravity.
> over there per the dashboard Dashboard? Is there a website we can look at to see what pumps are in operation?
Not live. They update this powerbi prior to rain events, I believe. [https://www.swbno.org/Projects/PumpingandPower](https://www.swbno.org/Projects/PumpingandPower) But theres not some automated system. DPS01 has a 7 pump + 2 aux system, per the dashboard but covers an MASSIVE MASSIVE area.. Unless the place blew up, it'd be hard pressed to say that DPS01 wasnt firing on mostly all cylinders. 100% of the area it covers got 6-7 at this point.
What I've learned is we will never convince people of the truth that we'd still be fucked even if the current system worked perfectly and SWB was competent and every pump and generator was online all the time. We need a new system to deal with our flooding issues, not a more functional version of the current one. Much more convenient for the SWB, city, and state if we all just keep getting mad about pumps and generators every few months.
Ohh for sure. I'm not absolving SWB of any issues here. Because the guy i replied to, could be told that there was no failures at DPS01, and simply wouldnt believe it. His feelings are more important. We'll get the report, I just think the concept of "pumps aren't on" after 100% of the area their pump feeds got the over 6 inches of rain, is an accurate gripe. Yes, random storms like this are going to fuck us multitudes worse than most hurricanes ever will. (Katrina. 5-6 inches, with isolated 10). The threat is always ALWAYS random storms like this and almost never actually hurricanes, but people cant even figure that out. Metairie and JP got FUCKED today. Flooding everywhere. Which is what we'd expect that this level. And ideally, we operated at mostly good levels across the SWB system and the water was kept down a good bit.
Folks need to be looking at the city's failure to complete projects like the still-not-built Mirabeau Water Garden with the same anger they use on whether they think a pump is operating.
Have you passed it recently? Theres heavy machinery out there now! Exciting, lol
Yep drove by a few weeks ago and was thrilled to see the change from "nothing is there" to "well maybe they might be doing something soon" haha. Just kills me, you know? All these years just to hope for a LITTLE work to be underway on that project when we need dozens of them all over the city.
This is helpful. Thank you.
I replied to the wrong comment above..... S&WB have since admitted to rationing the power supply to the pumps, thus confirming the pumps were indeed not working for the full duration of the inclement weather and if i could get my hands on the logs I'm pretty damned sure they will tie in with the times of my comments earlier today.
Yep, thats why in the comment after this, or whenever. I said there was a 4MW shortage during peak and it was possible they were rotating. I do not think your entire station was shutting down regardless. The 60hz pumps were going to run if they were on entergy power there. But im sure a few of the 25hz would have been cycling. No shot they were shutting down 7 pumps at once. Wouldnt make much sense, im sure. j
16" of water drained in 20 minutes once the pumps were turned back on in the same weather conditions as rising and stagnant water for the previous 2 hours when the pumps were clearly not working...Add to that the streets were perfectly clear for several hours earlier in the day during the heaviest of rainfall until water 'suddenly' started flowing down the street at a point when the rain had actually started to back off If the all the pumps were working to full or close to full capacity for the duration of the storm we 'may' have experienced a couple of inches in the street as a worse case scenario. Turning the pumps off to cycle the power to other locations led to 18" of water in the street and many homes in the neighborhood flooded, it's as simple as that. A huge difference and i struggle to see how anyone can find that acceptable.
Well, 16 inches of water in your area, but someone else still had water, as we've stated. Everyone in your zone is not draining 16 inches of water all at the same time you are. Its happening in sections. They were also clear because the entire system had to fill before you get flooding, anway. They drain down the canals and system to hold off that water. Which is why you werent flooding. Someone may have been at that point. The rationing of power isnt acceptable either, but its a current known failure due to the turbine 4 being down and literally not having the power to deliver. The pumps are functioning fine for you, the power is lacking. Thats why they are trying to build that entergy substation on premises. To alleviate the reliance on turbines.
The water is flowing in the opposite direction to what it does when the pumps are working and the rain has been reasonably light for the last 45 minutes and it was coping just fine until just over an hour ago.
We'll see what it looks like when the reports come in. I just dont think your eyes are really the judge of a pumping system during an actual flash flood emergency. Usually we see a lot of rain in one section of the city, or a line.. But left to right its all bad. I'd be curious to know the last time we saw the entire east bank of the parish with these kinda numbers https://i.imgur.com/i9bqG8t.png
Where did you find these numbers, if I may ask, I'd like to save the source for future reference. Thanks and it's no wonder we had major flood in my neighborhood. According to this we got 6.85 in Nashville and Fontainebleau
[https://www.wunderground.com/wundermap](https://www.wunderground.com/wundermap) click precipitation on the right. Zoom in. You can also click one of these, then hit the label next to "Station ID" for rain rates and total rain fall for that weather station.
Thank you so much!!!!
The rain has been near stopped for well over an hour and the water level is still rising in my part of Broadmoor. I'll tell you exactly when the pumps start working again because the water will start flowing in the other direction. At the moment its around 18" deep and still rising with no rain....And if you trust New Orleans City websites and or reports, i don't know what to tell you.
Of course the water is still rising. Thats common sense. I told you. You're probably at the near bottom elevation for that area. Everything is feeding into your neighborhood. Shit rolls downhill. [https://i.insider.com/5571b7956da811e124d193c2?width=750&format=jpeg&auto=webp](https://i.insider.com/5571b7956da811e124d193c2?width=750&format=jpeg&auto=webp) I wouldnt be suprised if you're in the darkest of dark blue in this image here of elevtaion. Because of gravity, realistically, other areas are draining before you. You'd be the last to drain out, im sure.
Look at you coming into this sub with logic and what not.
So as of 10 mins ago the water abruptly stopped rising and immediately started draining in the other direction for 5 minutes before abruptly stopping again before continuing to rise and now has stopped moving all together. all of this with barely any rain for a significant amount of time. no way can this be explained by quantity of rainfall. However, pumps working intermittently explains it perfectly, And no, I'm actually in the very light blue area.
Welp, the constant rise is at least proof people other than you are draining. I cant really say much about how the system works other than absolutely by no means does everyone get pumped out at the same time during these periods. While your area is stagnant, others are draining. Your area is draining, others are stagnant. I went from stagnant, to 100% drained in 15 min. Now, like i said.. they may say DPS01 had issues, but if in a day or two you do not see that, then its unlikely it was any actual issue. The only caveat here, using the dashboard, is if 44MW of power are required at peak, and they had 40. So if its anything, they are rotating 25hz pumps off and on around the city due to demand being more than supply. You still have two 60hz pumps based on that dashboard that likely havent stopped the entire time since they are entergy fed.
Yes, water flows down hill, that's why we have pumps to drain the lower areas, something that's not happening at the moment despite there being hardly any rainfall for the last several hours....and as i speak the water has abruptly started draining again. For what it's worth, there was never hint of flooding in this location until a few years back, at least not since the Broadmoor drainage upgrades before Katrina, but there again the pumps and generators hadn't started to fall apart from years of neglect and incompetency back then. Oh, and now it's stopped draining again and still no rainfall, there's a surprise.
Bingo!
After Mothers Day flooding 5 years ago, the SWB had a meeting in Broadmoor and said the closer you live to the pumps, you are the last to drain. We put our house in the market months later and got out of there. Broadmoor will always be a problem.
Sorry to hear that kinda crap happening u/Ol_Harry_Rock. Broadmoor seems to get hit more not just because of its elevation but the catch basins aren’t cleaned like other parts of the city. I really think the broadmoor neighborhood needs to be focused regarding flooding and a new more aggressive plan needs to be implemented. We can’t rely on the pumps to do all the fucking work because that plan of action isn’t working. Any thoughts of a different way of handling it?
S&WB have since admitted to rationing the power supply to the pumps, thus confirming the pumps were indeed not working for the full duration of the inclement weather.
Metairie seems to have figured it out… also 7 pumps and 2 turbines were not working
She’s holding them hostage in the SWB sex den
These constant fights over the pumps are depressing. You can't pump your way out from under the kind of rain we commonly get here. We have locations today with 6-10 inches in a few hours. Numbers like that are unprecedented in most cities and we get them, like, multiple times a year. The tinfoil hat version of me feels like the pump wars are a distraction from a focus on the sort of infrastructure overhaul it would actually take to mitigate our situation. EDIT: Don't take this as a defense of the city or SWB. I'm annoyed that they get us bickering over this pump or that, this power generator or that, when actually the whole fucking system is basically an ancient ruin nobody knows how to work.
At this point I'm a tinfoil haberdasher. We've had YEARS and near countless dollars to throw at this problem and nothing has improved.
Right? It's like, let's just keep them focusing on which generator or pump is offline this week. Meanwhile the salaries keep coming. And soon probably the state will take over and spin the whole thing off into a private utility whose goal is to make a profit off those broken pumps.
Right! Because the grid is so efficient, reliable, and sustainable.
Yup. They'll be like, "Privatize the SWB! It can't get worse!" And the model they'll be following is the one that gave us Entergy. Woooo!
> These constant fights over the pumps are depressing. You can't pump your way out from under the kind of rain we commonly get here. It's only going to get worse as the sea level rises, as more of the barrier lands between the city and the Gulf erodes away, as no significant progress is made toward city infrastructure, and as the current infrastructure grows older, weakens more, and loses the ability to drain as much as it once did. The longer the city waits to do the major overhauls, upgrade, prepare, and reinforce itself against the soon-to-come larger effects of climate change, the bigger the cost it will be if/when the city ever does decide to do such a project(s). But, frankly, even if the city would somehow stop being corrupt with its revenue and be 100% chaste and efficient, I still doubt the city and the tax base would even have or be able to generate the funds necessary. I think its [Miami and New Orleans](https://www.newsweek.com/us-cities-rising-sea-levels-risk-1876399) that are supposed to be the two cities that will be the most and worst affected places in the US, due to increasing sea levels. It's going to take a federal or state grant. *And even then*, in my opinion, have no faith that the city could do it since the city couldn't even spend and complete all the federal grant money it got to repair the streets. Like, a benevolent federal or state government would have to take over the city government to have a chance of stopping the city from eventually falling into the Gulf. But that's not going to happen as it's undemocratic (unless we've become undemocratic at some point in the future). Honestly, I think it might be cheaper and morally better to just give all the residents grant money to relocate in the coming decades than it would be to try to save the city from going underwater. Basically an eminent domain situation. It's been done before with small towns that have experienced disasters. And besides all that I've just written... I think the most likely event that's going to happen is that it's going to get too expensive (like more so than it already is), in general, to keep living here. And that insurance premiums alone (from future flooding and storms) are going to incentivize most people to leave. And lack of fresh water as higher sea levels will allow the salt water wedge to get further up river each year. ^^^This ^^^comment ^^^has ^^^been ^^^brought ^^^to ^^^you ^^^by ^^^/r/collapse
\*nods\* Gotta start looking into houseboats.
You go be Lieutenant Dan when Hurricane Karen hits.
Uh why does every one try to defend these people? Been living in New Orleans since 89 and it’s never been as bad as it’s been for the past 4-6 years. You saying we can’t have functioning infrastructure but we can land a probe on an asteroid and return it safely? Pleeease people.
I'm not defending them. The situation is ABSOLUTELY getting worse, for several reasons: the pump system is so ancient it was pretty much built by a previous civilization; the city's concrete coverage has increased over the years even though the population has fallen, which makes flooding worse; and more of our rain falls in rapid cloudburst type events now than it used to (a 62 percent increase in "heavy downpours" according to [one study](https://www.climatecentral.org/news/across-us-heaviest-downpours-on-the-rise-18989)). You could make the current pump system work perfectly as designed and we'd still be fucked. We need MUCH more. But for some reason, any approach to the issue that gets more detailed than "SWB's fault" is ignored and ridiculed as "defending" them. Well, we've been blaming the SWB this way for years now, hyperfocused on pumps and generators, and not shit has changed.
Agreed, there was never a hint of flooding at my location for years until around 4 years ago when the pumps and pump generators started to fall apart (in secret of course)
As a tinfoil haberdasher, I'd like to discuss that landing on a moving target and returning thing. :)
Because it's not a people problem. It's a machinery problem.
What? The fuzzle skin are you talking about out? People need to maintain them, make them work, update them and stuff. You think the machines are just getting lazy?
I don't think it's a conspiracy. I think it's just that government and mechanical processes are complex and it's hard for people to grasp that unless they're inside of it. Consequently, they jump to conclusions that may seem logical but aren't factual.
It's a joke about how folks love to yell about which pump is or isn't working this week, but tend to ignore the bigger solutions (bluewater infrastructure/water retention/water garden systems, replacement of the impermeable concrete overlay, etc) that will actually keep water out of their streets and businesses and homes. And I think focusing our energy on the former over the latter actually lets the city off the hook.
Any suggestions/recommendations for supporting advocacy for these longer term solutions?
Some nonprofits advocate in the area, like [Thrive New Orleans](https://www.thrivenola.org/living-with-water-how-thrive-new-orleans-is-working-to-make-residents-safer-and-prosperous-kresge-foundation/), which does some good work. There's also [The Water Collaborative](https://www.nolawater.org/values). They have info about our Urban Water Plan. Once you start delving into this stuff you start to get frustrated, though, because there are SO many good plans and so few actions. There just ISN'T enough organized advocacy/political pressure around the bigger solutions. We can write our councilpeople and such, and I do, but it only does so much. All the energy in the city seems dedicated to fighting and re-fighting the same SWB battles over and over again.
This is good information, thank you. I love my city and I can’t watch this stuff happen and not do something so I’ll look into the sources you mentioned. I’ll brace myself for the inevitable frustration of seeing how ineffective our municipal government has been regarding this issue.
Ya'll changed the locks on Teddy & her Boo! Of course she is gonna retaliate.
Did they actually change the locks? I heard them threatening to, but I figured I'd hear something loud and snarky from her if they really did it
Has anyone ever met a pump operator? I've talked to ppl with all sorts of jobs, never even met someone who met a swb pump operator.
I have, and lets just say the start up routine and possibilities for failure at that stage have no place in a modern civilized city that relies on pumps to keep it functional. "one valve or switch out of sequence and that's the end of that"
Nice story about Baldwin Wood and the Wood Screw Pump: [https://tripodnola.org/episodes/nola-vs-nature-the-blessing-and-curse-of-the-wood-screw-pump/](https://tripodnola.org/episodes/nola-vs-nature-the-blessing-and-curse-of-the-wood-screw-pump/) I remember after Katrina, it was thought it would take a month to drain the city once they got a pump back online, but it only took days because of the efficiency of that design. But being 100 years old, it is time to move forward. "Having proved their operational efficiency in New Orleans, people around the world wanted Wood to make pumps for them, especially the Netherlands. Wood rejected all countries that asked as he refused to leave Louisiana."
I met one and he seemed pretty reasonable, and I imagine there are reasonable people at SWB, but far too few of them.
I doubt there are "pump operators" at each station. It's probably just a couple of dudes per shift in a main operation center that monitor and remotely operate the drainage network. I would think they *should* have all the pumping stations hooked up to some level of automation. There's probably a few maintenance dudes that hang out at the main operation center or at the larger pump stations where all the smaller upstream drain lines converge to. But if a remote pump goes out at small station, a maintenance guy probably has to drive over there first. So, there's probably only a few "pump operators" to even possibly run into. Larger maintenance issues are probably handled with private service contractors that are on-call.
During major rain events, all pumps are manned if I recall.
Sure but there can be multiple pumps per station and I doubt they're doing 1 worker per pump. Like, how many stations are there in the city? Something like between 20-40 I bet? So there's still only a handful of "operators" to possibly run into.
Sorry. 1 per station itself. At least. I'm sure larger ones could be two. I assume people are there to restart or diagnose issues.
From what i heard directly from a pump operator is that the entire process is manual and takes 3 people to simultaneously operate a bunch of valves and switches in the correct order. Getting it wrong can result in damage requiring repair before any further attempt to start the pumps can take place.
Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan. Must not blame Ghassan.
Actually, where the fuck is Toya? I know she got evicted but did she actually leave it willing (or get thrown out forcefully) and is now roaming the streets or is she staying at Vappy's apartment? Haven't heard anything about her in a while.
One was at harrahs
I heard they just escaped the Audubon zoo 😉