NEW ORLEANS – As a result of water reaching the operational trigger of 2.5 ft. and rising at the London Ave. Canal due to easterly winds and rain Tropical Storm Ida, Col. Alvin B. Lee, New Orleans District commander, ordered the canal gates closed at 2:30 p.m..
The gates take about 50 minutes to close and, once closed, we can begin pumping water from the canal into the lake to maintain the safe water elevation of 5 ft.
“We continually rehearse our emergency operation procedures to be prepared to respond at any time,” said Col. Lee. “Closing the gates at London today will reduce risk for the New Orleans area by allowing the Sewerage and Water Board to maximize their pumping capacity and maintaining a safe water elevation in the canal.”
A four person team located at the structure is responsible for operating the gates and pumps from the control 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.
Release no. 09-026