New Orleans is dry
13/10/2005 18:39  - (SA)  

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New Orleans - New Orleans is dry, US army engineers said on Thursday after pumping almost a quarter of a trillion gallons of water from the storm-soaked city.

The army corps of engineers has "essentially completed unwatering the metropolitan area of New Orleans", corps spokesperson Alan Dooley told AFP.

"The city is dry, except for small pooling," Dooley said.

"It's when you get down to it that you realise the back side of a block is six inches (15cm) lower than the front."

Pumping stations that normally work to keep water out of New Orleans, which is a few feet below sea level, were operating to drain remaining pockets of water, according to the corps "task force unwatering team".

It took 43 days of around-the-clock work to patch broken levees and pump out flood water left by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the corps reported.

Flood walls around the city have been raised to over 3m and the corps is still facing the job of fortifying the levee system, according to Dooley.

"The next steps are all the things that pertain to bringing the levees back to pre-Karina strength," Dooley said.

"That's a lot of earth moving, removing barges from on top of levees.

There is much work to be done."

1 gallon = 3.78 litres

- AFP

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