It's complicated

Q: So what happened this time, S&WB?

A: A lot of things.

City officials gave a recap Monday of the events that forced thousands of New Orleans residents to boil their water before consuming it over the weekend, while they also pledged to work harder to ensure these events become less frequent.

An Entergy pole that delivers power to the Sewerage & Water Board's Carrollton Avenue water plant was compromised early Saturday morning, they said.

But an Entergy feeder at the Panola Station was also out of service, two events that caused a loss of power to a pump at the agency's Panola Station.

The S&WB's new Carrollton Water Tower kicked in shortly afterward and began doing its job to stabilize the resulting drop in city water pressure. But a main breaker that delivers power at the agency's Claiborne Station then tripped, which caused the S&WB to lose two pumps, they said.

Now this is just a theory but it may be about time to light the permanent Christmas tree installed in the West Bank office.  The procedure there is almost as complicated as what is described above so you can see how easily it can go off the rails.