Fix the Pumps......More like get the good "Wood" pumps or New Orleans doesn't have a chance...

Just recently, the Westbank Closure Complex, the world's largest pumping station was recently activated. ( reference T-P) However, the pumps used there and at the 17th Street Canal have numerous problems just to get them to work in the first place, or for that matter, keeping them running at all. (reference Fix-The-Pumps Blog)

So how do these pumps on the Westbank Closure Complex and the 17th Street Canal compare to like "Wood" pumps that New Orleans was originally famous for?

Well, I am just seeing lots and lots of pump and engine overheating, blockage, high vibration, bearings failure, short design life, low water, etc. One excuse after another with these recently installed hydraulic pumps...(And for every single day since they were installed after Hurricane Katrina.)

Yet, has anyone EVER heard of those problems with the "Wood" pumps or for that matter ANY problems with the "Wood" pumps? NO! In fact, do a Google search, or better Lexis Nexus search on "new orleans pump problems" over the last 100 years and see what comes up regarding Wood pumps and the recently installed hydraulic pumps in the New Orleans Metro Area.

From the numerous "not-really-all-our-fault" decisions made since Hurricane Katrina, the US Army Corp of Engineers is just putting on a dog and pony show as they, themselves, don't believe that New Orleans can be saved in the future from coastal erosion or from hurricane storm surge. Hence, the Corp chose the cheapest, sorry "economical", solution that meets the specifications. But in the end, these new hydraulic pumps can't handle the real thing and certainly not the real thing, year after year, as everyone can see for themselves that the pumps are in a constant state of maintenance.

I guess they, the Corp, are thinking,

"Why use Wood pumps when in any given year New Orleans could be hit by a major hurricane anyway. And any pumps, even the best like the famous Wood pumps invented in New Orleans like 100 years ago and STILL used all over the world, wouldn't matter anyway in the overall survivability of New Orleans in the long term."

Even the top guy at the US Army Corp of Engineers, Lt. General Robert Van Antwerp, Chief of the US Army Corps of Engineers, said that publicly,

"Protect the city no, reduce the risk yes. We can develop better early warning systems, better evacuation plans, better levees to hold back most of the water but we cannot stop levees being overtopped and the city flooded.". 

And it's not just the top guy at the Corp, it's also Congress and anyone outside of Louisiana. reference US Army Corps can't stop floods in New Orleans