Question about pumping New Orleans

[Gruenemann]

All the estimates I've heard about pumping the city out are based on using the exisiting pumps. Is there any reason--once the levees are stabilized--why other pumps can't be used to help speed the process? I've seen dredges with monster pumps spewing vast amounts of water. Any reason why they can't back some of these up to the levees and start pumping away? Or would the volume of water render them irrelavent?

[ewagner]

1. If.....

there was leadership, funding and just the WILL to do so, it could be done....the Corps of Engineers has huge dredges that could act like pumps....they're stationed up and down the Mississippi, I think.

[El Supremo]

2. I heard some big Corps of Engineer guy say.

That the city's pumps are by far the most efficient. That is if they can get them all to work.

[rogue_bandit]

3. Brave face

I saw the Governor of LA and a FEMA guy on TV last night. They were putting a brave face on it but I don't think they believe the city will be rebuilt...at least not for a long time.

There is a lot more water there than those pumps can pull out in any real amount of time...and the levies are still leaking so they would have to either damn up a 30 mile stretch of broken earth (since the Feds failed to get the sand bags there) or pump out the whole lake.

Once those houses have been sitting in water for three weeks or more their foundations will be damaged, the walls will be useless and they won't be habitable for a long long time.

Not only the price of gas will go up. The price of lumber and other building materials will skyrocket because of the rebuilding effort..even emergancy buildings for more than a hundred thousand people will put a drain on construction resources.

Well, at least there will be construction jobs.

I'm praying for those who are suffering.

[KamaAina]

4. Maybe they could somehow float the Deluge in there

The Deluge is the fireboat that normally plies the Mississippi in case of a fire on the docks. It pumps thousands upon thousands of gallons straight from the Mississippi onto the fire. I've seen a demo, and it's really cool.

So why not float it in there and direct the stream (it's massive ) over the levee and into the lake?

[chicagiana]

5. As long as they have to tear down all the houses ...

... they might as well take the opportunity to fill as much of the city in as possible. They can start by deepening the levees.

[Tesha]

6. One problem is where to put the water...

One problem is where to put the water; I heard an Army Corps of
Engineers guy on NPR this morning discussing the fact that if they
start the existing city pumps in the area, the level of water in
the (I think) 17th Street Canal rises two feet as it accommodates
the increased flow from just that one set of pumps.

So it's a non-trivial question to decide where to put the discharge
from any pump that you might bring in to help pump out the puddle.

Tesha