Orleans Canal: (Satellite)
London Avenue Canal: (Satellite)
The USACE has built a levee between Lake Pontchartrain and New Orleans to protect New Orleans from a storm surge in the lake when a hurricane passes through the area. These storm surges can be so severe in the lake that they are now building levees to protect towns on the west shore of the lake. The levee system around New Orleans has openings that allow drainage canals to empty into the lake during normal times. But when a surge is coming, they have to close the gates on those openings to keep the lake out of the city. But the same hurricane is going to dump a lot of rain in the city. So, when the gates are closed, pumps lift the rainwater from the city up into the lake.
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| Facebook Reel Filling the Superdome in 90 minutes is equivalent to filling an Olympic-sized swimming pool in 3.6 seconds. https://www.floodauthority.org/ |
There are three canals with gates and pump houses (#8 in this figure). I presume the flow rate in the above video is for all three pump houses combined.
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| https://www.floodauthority.org/ |
17th Street Canal
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| FloodAuthority_pccp |
I included the flood wall on the right so that we can see how tall it is. The gates are on the left. I'm guessing the pumps are in the center and diesel-generator sets are on the right because they probably lose power during a hurricane. All of those tanks in the foreground clued me in about the diesel generators. I presume they store diesel fuel.
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| Street View, Feb 2023 |
This view confirms that they use sluice gates.
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| Street View, Oct 2025 |
Orleans Canal
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| FloodAuthority_pccp |
The Orleans Pump Station is a lot smaller. That makes sense because this canal drains a smaller area between the other two canals.
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| Street View, Apr 2024 |
This is what the lake side looks like.
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| Street View, Apr 2025 |
London Canal
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| FloodAuthority_pccp |
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| Street View, Mar 2024 |
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