User:Noosfractal/Katrina

Recovery effort

On Monday, September 5, power began to be restored to buildings in the central business district of New Orleans on a priority basis [1][2].

As of Tuesday, September 6, portable pumps were being used to remove water from the city. The estimated area of flooding was reduced to 60% [3]. By late Tuesday afternoon, 3 of the 148 permanent pumps had been restored to operation. Important steps in returning more pumps to operation include repairing breaches in the London Avenue and Industrial canals. Repair of the London Avenue breach was estimated to require two weeks. Steps in repairing the Industrial canal breach include removal of two damaged barges and one that had sunk. [4]

Also on Tuesday, September 6, the Port of New Orleans, the biggest U.S. port by tonnage handled, was able to receive and service relief ships. It was estimated that resumption of commercial shipments would take at least 14 days [5].

By Wednesday, September 7, 23 of the 148 permanent pumps had been restored to operation [6]. Safe drinking water was available in some West Bank suburbs, and some water pressure was available in New Orleans for fire fighting. All sewage from the city was flowing untreated into the Mississippi [7].

As of Thursday, September 8, Entergy had restored 9 of 17 electricity generating units in the New Orleans area to service. Entergy's 1000 MW Waterford and Watson plants were still out of service, with the Watson plant expected to require 6-12 weeks to repair [8]. Of 174 pumps now in the New Orleans area, 37 were operational. However, officials were wary of operating the pumps at full capacity because of the possibility of damaging newly repaired levees and of loosing corpses [9].

As of Friday, September 9, power had been restored to 11% of New Orleans customers. Also, officials were organizing to have work begin as soon as Monday, September 12, to rebuild the "twin spans" I-10 bridge to New Orleans. [10]

By Sunday, September 11, the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport had reopened to cargo traffic, with limited passenger service expected to resume Tuesday, September 13. The number of operating pumps had been raised to 74 of 174, with the high capacity "Pumping Station Number Six" expected to be returned to service within days. Officials lowered the estimated maximum amount of time required to unwater New Orleans to 40 days (i.e., late October) [11] [12].

On Monday, September 12, officials [13] gave the following estimates for unwatering New Orleans given average seasonal rainfall:

Also on Monday, officials awarded a contract to repair the "twin spans" I-10 bridge to New Orleans. It was estimated that 45 days would be required before the bridge could reopen to normal traffic. [14]

Five hospitals in the New Orleans area had reopened as of Monday. One of those had a full schedule, including elective surgery. However, the mandatory evacuation had caused a dearth of patients, resulting in predictions of staff loss and reduced service. Two other hospitals were being used as recovery worker accomodations. [15]

In Jefferson Parish on Monday, power had been restored to 50% of customers. Water pressure had been restored in the majority of the Parish. A "boil water" order was still in force on the East Bank, but had been lifted for the West Bank. On the East Bank, 17% of sewage pumps were operational, and 39% were operational on the West Bank. [16]