European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 31, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Soggy new Orleans by Bill ck1der associated press some folks say it it we rent for the French new Orleans would truth water pumps and drainage not Bourbon Street and keep it thais one fact that always astounds people and it sort of shows the situation we we says Charlie who supervises the great new you is so soggy that 30 million Gallons of seep water must be drained each even when lawns Are scorched by Lack of at the 260 years the City was limited to the some 14 Square Blacks now called the French that the highest land in these h soars to 14 feet above sea High enough to make a swamp dwellers cars but that High ground is just a Hump beside the Mississippi from the things slide much of new Orleans squats on land six feet below sea i is rather like a Large with the Mississippi River levees As the Southern rim and the seawall bordering 25miiewide Lake Pontchartrain i on the other As a a sudden surge of water can cause big though the nearest seashore is 30 Miles across Salt Hurricane winds have driven sea tides into suburban housing shoulder deep in the living rooms the squeezed Between a foot sometimes rises so High that crewmen on passing ships look Down on City but on a Day today its ram that puts the Load on the 21 pumping stations and 200 Miles of canals that make up the nations most extensive City drainage sys it Rains a lot in new the annual average longed by the weather Bureau is ire Hes compared with about 7 inches for where they Don t need drainage canals but often wish they every pint pumped out o the Saucer that is sew Orleans has to be lifted 10 or 12 Leet to get h High enough to spew into Lake Polch Mylrain or the Infra coastal water water coming from the Center of the Saucer has to be lifted twice once gel it Oul of and again at a Ems an mov r new Orleans wettest Day was last May when Conol Street really lived up to its billion Gallons on there arc times when twice that  be the wettest Day that Hartman expects to Ever see overwhelmed the system within hours last May it arrived without warn looking like just another it came As a total says Hart supervisor of pumping i was Over at station six when i looked at the rain it read nothing we  i looked at the gauge 15 minutes later and it read we knew then we were in bad in keeping with an unwritten Law that a bad situation will get winds raised tides in the the Gull leaned against the the Bays leaned against the passes into the lakes and the lakes backed Pontchartrain via seven feel higher than Normal at the drainage outfall the outflow had to fight its Way into Chr before it 116 inches had been dumped on the City in about eight new Orleans was awash in water that left an estimated j103 million in damage to the metropolitan president Carter declared it a major disaster City officials said Homes and stores and businesses were the suburban mainly in adjoining Jef Ferson Parish was Homos Hartman says no drainage system could have handled he but be says that 99 percent of the water was pumped off City within not so in the must l which grew up on reclaimed dramas systems there arc relatively imminent some areas simply cant be protected against big in suburban a weary Parish us facial told homeowners in one development hat the Only Way to solve their Donnine problem was to bulldoze the houses urn the land into a Council chairman Jim mean vowed to push for a no growth Law limiting Lulu re developments in for those who think Only no the French Quarter when they think of new its an idea to years Loo late Whol sew Orleans never Beard of in there Are eleven 12foot annual rain a 21 july ing 200 Miles of canals that surge of water can endanger the stars and stripes Page 3