NEW ORLEANS – As a result of water reaching the operational trigger of 2.5 ft. and rising at the London Ave. Canal, Col. Ed Fleming, New Orleans District commander, ordered the canal gates closed today at 4:30 p.m.
The gates took about 50 minutes to close and, once closed, we began pumping water from the canal into the lake to maintain the safe water elevation of 5 ft.
"The interim control structures along the lakefront have significantly reduced the risk to New Orleans," said Col. Fleming. "The Corps continually rehearses the operation of the structures and we are confident that they will perform as designed, just as they did during Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008."
A three person team located at the structure is responsible for operating the gates and pumps from the safe room.
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) equipment enables our emergency operations center to remotely monitor and operate the system as a redundancy in our operation plan, should the need arise.
The Corps’ pumps have a maximum combined capacity of 5,200 cubic feet per second at the London Ave. Canal.
We work closely with the Sewerage & Water Board to maximize their drainage capacity while ensuring public safety by maintaining the safe water elevation.
Release no. 11-027