Widespread street flooding occurred Saturday night across New Orleans due to heavy rain and a Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans turbine outage.
City officials permitted neutral ground parking and issued a flash flood warning before upwards of four to five inches of rain fell over the span of two to three hours.
Just after 6 p.m., the SWBNO reported that Turbine 4 was taken offline for a “potential mechanical issue,” likely exasperating street flooding.
Olivia Vande Vusse, a Tulane University fall graduate, had to walk through knee-high flood water after attempting to drive to her significant other’s home on Calhoun Street.
“There was garbage floating around in the water,” Vande Vusse said. “A soggy hot dog bun floated past me at one point.”
Vande Vusse said that other dangers emerged while the two attempted to get back to safety.
“I couldn’t see my feet, so I couldn’t see where I was stepping next. Cars driving down the road would create waves, and it would suddenly be so much deeper where I was standing,” Vande Vusse said.
Junior Sarah Bloss said that when attempting to return to her house on State Street, the entire road was flooded.
“There were five cars stuck outside my house. One of them had a crew of guys trying to jump it and tug another [car] out of the water, but they were there for two hours and nothing was working,” Bloss said.
Floodwaters began to dwindle after 10 p.m., and the reason for the wind turbine failure remains unknown.
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