Koan of uncertainty

The Mayor's noon press conference is just now wrapping up.  Landrieu's message was, "We think it's gonna be ok," but he promised to remain in "battle rhythm" and advised all of us to continue to "lean forward" which we think only makes sense when walking into 65 mile per hour winds.  He also told us to "be prepared for the unexpected" which must be some sort of riddle.

The Mayor then turned the podium over to the many many other persons packed onto the dais with him who he referred to oddly as "individuals who will throw down with you." I think he meant "throw down" as in "share information" but it was kind of a strange thing to say after talking about how we're all in battle rhythm. Also Stacy Head was there which confused the matter all the more.

After the various department heads took their turns at assuring us they were prepared for the weather, The mic went over to Jackie Clarkson who... was promptly interrupted by Head who insisted on talking first.  Head then, sort of, introduced Jackie by telling us about how confident she knew Jackie was.  When Clarkson finally got the mic, she began, "She (Head) made my speech for me," before going on to stress the importance of "following orders" during an emergency.  And so it remains unclear to anyone just which of the two councilwomen is the most likely to declare martial law first if things start to go bad.

District A Councilwoman took a second to caution us about animals that might bite us during a hurricane.  If that seems like a weird topic to you, you probably don't spend much time in Uptown.

While the press conference was going on, The Lens published this discouraging report questioning the reliability of the pumping station at the floodgate of the Orleans Avenue canal. 

Two of the 10 pumps at Orleans Avenue experienced “some type of hydraulic failure” last month, were removed and are being repaired off site. They’re scheduled to be reinstalled in mid September, Accardo said. This appears to be the second failure experienced by the two pump systems this summer, after likely corrosion-related oil spills prompted their initial withdrawal from service.

Interestingly, the Corps says they've never even had to close the Orleans gate even during Ike and Gustav so this is probably not a reason to panic but it does raise another riddle.  If the gate isn't even used during a major storm, what is it there for?