But emails

The Advocate has been combing through S&WB internal communications to see if they can nail down who knew what and when. They emphatically state over and over in this article that they can't find any evidence that mayor's office was "in the loop" with regard to the pump problems. You can decide if you think that's actually a good or a bad thing. Anyway, we do know that, internally at least, S&WB was aware there were problems on the horizon.

“This is enough power to continue potable water pumping operations, but we will not have sufficient power capacity to perform any drainage pumping based upon SWB supplied power,” Becker wrote on July 28. “For the next several weeks, with the height of hurricane season approaching, we are going to be dependent upon Entergy power to operate our drainage system.”