Posted on 09/03/2005 6:36:23 PM PDT by A. Pole
Efforts to drain New Orleans hit another snag Friday as the Army Corps of Engineers discovered that it could not buy new pumps to replace those damaged by the flooding.
Massive pumps capable of draining the city like those that have been keeping New Orleans dry for decades are no longer made and would have to be specially ordered, a process that would take too long, said Col. Richard Wagenaar, the senior corps official in New Orleans.
Instead, repair crews will have to dry out the existing pumps, which could take up to a week, before repairing them with replacement motors and parts and begin pumping water back into Lake Pontchartrain. The repair job could prolong efforts to drain the city, about 80% of which is submerged.
"These pumps are so big, you can't buy them off the shelf. You have to make them, and we don't have time for that," said Wagenaar, who spent about an hour Friday escorting President Bush around the levee damage at the 17th Street Canal.
The city, much of which is below sea level, relies on a network of 22 pumps to keep water out. Army engineers now believe eight pumps are underwater.
The latest wrinkle illustrated the enormous complexity of draining the city, which for more than 200 years had gradually built up an elaborate system to keep itself dry.
Even with the setback, Wagenaar said, the city could be drained in three to six months, mainly because engineers may finally be able to get to the largest pump station, at the end of the 17th Street Canal, as early as today.
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(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Actually, it doesn't, and that is a problem.
(Just keep your hands and clothing away from it, 'kay?)
I have complete confidence in the Corps to get the job done with maximum efficiency and minimum complaining (unlike the city and the state, which seem to have it the other way round.) My daddy was a Combat Engineer, and he has always been amazingly handy at building things out of nothing and fixing stuff with chewing gum and baling wire.
Okay, am I the only one who sees the irony of water pumps that need major repairs if they get wet?
oh, nooooooooooo.
Just get everybody out and then bulldoze the damned corrupt city. It's a stain on civilization.
Get those lazy good for nothing people that sit on there ass all day and collect welfare money from taxpayers and form a bucket birgade
Wouldn't work!!! They would have to stop to drink every third bucket and eat a hog leg.
The TV show "Insomniac" did an episode on New Orleans. On of the spots visited by the host, Dave Attell, was a pumping station where he spoke with the operator and stated up the (extremely loud) pump. The pumping equipment did not seem noticeably antiquated. It's not surprising that the pumps are no longer made. There probably not enough call for building-sized pumps to keep a factory operating.
Why?
Large pumps are custom made. Pump manufacturers can't afford to have them sitting on the shelf. These pumps would probably take months to fabricate.
Replacement pumps would need to fit on existing baseplates to avoid having to make foundation modifications. So, they would probably need to be the same type and size as the existing ones.
Maybe they could find identical pumps in service somewhere else in the country, but those pumps would probably be in a flood-control service where you would risk another flood disaster if you took the pumps.
It sounds to me like they better find a way to make the existing pumps work.
Are they still being made or the only way to get them is to scavenge?
They don't offer any specifics as to volume or horsepower required. The local power plant here I've done work at has a locomotive engine that drives their generator. Seems like a few of those could be rounded up to drive pumps, perhaps directly.
I seriously doubt any LA Times writer knows anything at all about pumps ~ well, maybe one of those sexual performance enhancement devices, but not anything with serious capacity.
It isn't the pumps that are the problem, it is the switchgear (enigeer talk for transformers and mondo circuit breakers and switches) and motor starters. If the switchgear is full of water, it will explode when power is applied to it. Same for the motor starters.
Yes, actually I do--and probably better than you do, having seen real Mississippi River flooding in action several times in my life. But there are lots of tractors and pumps in South Louisiana, plus I'm sure there are tractor-trailer mountable portable pumps that can be brought in.
It's a case of making use of ALL the potentially available resources to get the job done. Just like N.O. "should" have used their damned school buses to move/evacuate people.
NO has been running those pumps WITHOUT SPARE PARTS? Sheesh.
interfaces would also need to be in the same relative places. big pumps put a lot of force on their fittings.
later read
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