Ha, see, you probably thought this was going to be about the Democratic national ticket. But, no, Wine Mom and Football Dad will have to wait. Even more normal things than that are happening in New Orleans.
The New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board issued a boil water advisory for the city's entire east bank and Algiers Point Tuesday night after a power outage at the Carrollton and Algiers water plants.
The outages caused water pressure to drop across the city, prompting the advisory "out of an abundance of caution," S&WB said. The cause of the power outage is under investigation.
It's been a while since we've had a citywide boil advisory. I can't begin to guess why the Boil Order Decade came to a pause, but I would start with assuming they just stopped reporting the minor outages. When the pressure goes down everywhere at dinnertime, though, too many people notice. So they have to pretend to act.
The initial press release raises several questions.
The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans (SWBNO), in consultation with the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) has issued a precautionary boil water advisory (BWA) for the East Bank of New Orleans and Algiers Point. A map will be forthcoming.
Water pressures in thease areas fell below 20 pounds per square inch (psi) due to power failure at the Carrollton Water Treatment plant. The Algiers Water Treatment plant was also briefly affected by this power outage. The cause of the power failure is still being investigated. Water pressure to the New Orleans Eastbank and Algiers Point have been restored, but a precautionary boil water advisory is necessary until water samples can be collected and tested.
How long was the power to the pumps out? In 2019, SWB installed two "water hammer" towers that are supposed to maintain pressure in the event of a power outage for up to 40 minutes. Entergy tells WWLTV that tonight's outage was a "brief power fluctuation." Is and event that can be described in those terms, more than the "hammers" can handle? If so, what good are they?
How is it that the "brief power fluctuation" affected both the East and West bank treatment plants? I didn't think they were connected. Also what is going on with Entergy in general? Anecdotally, we've been experiencing little brown outs around here just about every evening this summer. I haven't seen any explanation for this.
In fact, it seems like they aren't even trying to communicate anymore. Tonight, for example, when tasked with explaining the brief fluctuation that somehow overcame SWB's big expensive hazard mitigation system, they just went into their bag of standard excuses and pulled out...
BREAKING: A spokesperson with Entergy N.O. says a Mylar balloon is behind tonight's power outage that led to SWBNO losing power and the subsequent boil water advisory that is currently affecting almost all of the city. @WWLTV @CmGiarrusso
— Lily Cummings (@lilyrcummings) August 7, 2024
Balloon? On both sides of the river at once? That's enough to knock out the most critical public infrastructure in the city? Still? After so many rounds of this? No way that makes sense.
On the other hand, it's an extremely normal thing to hear from them.
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