Thursday, October 13, 2005
Dry at last, dry at last
The Times-Picayune's NOLA.Com site reports that the last of the flood waters is removed from the city.
New Orleans is finally dry after two deadly hurricanes dumped more than 224 billion gallons of water into the city, the Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday.
Hurricane Katrina completely wrecked pump station No. 5 off Florida Avenue in the devastated Lower 9th Ward. To rid the neighborhood of standing floodwater, the corps placed temporary pumps along the Industrial Canal. But the largest of the 10 temporary pumps had only one-tenth of the capacity of a single pump in the station house, said Army Col. Duane Gapinski, commander of Task Force Unwavering.
German and Dutch agencies, along with state and federal authorities, have worked in New Orleans over the past month to drain the floodwater. Gapiniski said pump station No. 5 has been cleaned and sanitized. The New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board has hired contractors to repair the pumps.
"And when we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard nor welcome, but when we are silent we are still afraid. So it is better to speak remembering we were never meant to survive." -- Audie Lorde
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