Gov. John Bel Edwards toured flood damage in New Orleans Monday. Edwards and Mayor Mitch Landrieu spoke to business owners and residents in the Treme where cleanup is underway.
Windell Bean’s family has owned their home on St. Ann for 53 years. Other than Katrina, the house hasn’t flooded since 1978. That is until Saturday, when it took on 4 inches of water.
“I stood up on my porch,” says Bean, “and the drains were taking water in, and then all of a sudden it just stopped and then the water started coming up. I said, ‘it’s time to move vehicles.’”
Bean was ripping carpet out of his home as Gov. Edwards surveyed the damaged neighborhood. Bean says flooding is just part of life in New Orleans — but he’s hopeful that infrastructure improvements will fix some recent problems.
“They’re doing a lot of drainage work,” Bean says, “so I hope it gets better. I really do. You live in this area, you know what to expect. You just take on the water, you do the clean up, you move on.”
In a press conference, Mayor Mitch Landrieu responded to concerns about the city's pumping system, saying flooding was inevitable with 8 to 10 inches of rain in a short time.
“We have one of the best pumping systems in the world,” says Landrieu, “but we will find out if there was a problem. Having said that — the city was going to flood anyway from this particular event."
City Council will hold a meeting Tuesday afternoon to discuss whether or not the pumping stations worked properly.
Support for the Coastal Desk comes from the Walton Family Foundation, the Coypu Foundation, the Greater New Orleans Foundation, and local listeners.
