The consultant Mitch hired to tell us all about the problems at Sewerage and Water Board says
there were problems, S&WB was aware of the problems, and everybody blew them off.
The report details now well-known mechanical failures and limitations
of the city's drainage system. But it also focuses on breakdowns in
priorities and a lack of concern and attention to the drainage system in
the "years, months and days" before the flood.
All that
contributed to a situation in which the S&WB had only 10 percent of
its power available during the storm and the hardest-hit areas had only
45 percent to 70 percent of the pumping capacity they theoretically
could have had.
As an example, the report notes that after the
S&WB was alerted in March that all the turbines that run the
drainage system had failed and were offline, there was "no evident
follow-up or inquiries regarding what would happen during a severe rain
event."
It says that was true despite multiple meetings of the S&WB's
governing board, the City Council and Landrieu's cabinet, which included
S&WB representatives.
Later in the day, former Landrieu Administration First Deputy Mayor
Ryan Berni told the Advocate that there simply was no way they could have known about the problems.
Ryan Berni, who was one of Landrieu’s top advisers, said Tuesday that
more could have been done if S&WB officials had been candid with
the administration about the state of the system.
“I think you saw
in the last year us really run into the fire fixing the problem that we
were learning more about,” Berni said. “Clearly there had been a
culture of misinformation at the Sewerage & Water Board both in its
dealing with the public and with City Hall.”
Does that seem remotely possible?
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