When Hurricane Katrina barreled into New Orleans a decade ago, the city’s levees were unable to hold back water from Lake Pontchartrain, resulting in massive flooding. As levees broke and pumping stations failed, nearly 80% of the city was flooded. Now, ten years and $18 billion later, levees have been rebuilt and new pumping stations are under construction. Some of the billions of dollars in federal aid that made its way to New Orleans after that devastating storm went to Jefferson Parish, now home to what will be one of the world’s largest pumping stations. ‘We’ll be able to pump an Olympic size swimming pool full in five seconds. So it gives you an idea of the pumping capacity of this facility,’ said Elton Lagasse, an at large council member of Jefferson Parish. The facility is expected to be completed in 2017. Right now, temporary pumps that were built after Katrina remain in place. Lagasse said the community is far more prepared for any future hurricanes. ‘They have completely re-leveed this whole system, redone all of our pump stations,’ said Lagasse. ‘All of our pump stations now have back-up generators, they have safe houses where the pump operators will stay. They are 35 feet off the ground and can withstand 250 mile per hour winds. So we are in a much better position than we were before as far as hurricane protection and as far as flood protection.’
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