Heavy rain floods streets in New Orleans, overburdens pumping stations
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Heavy rain swamped New Orleans' streets Thursday, forcing some schools to close early and backing up traffic as pumping stations struggled to keep up.
"Unbelievable," said Pamela Borne, who waded in knee-high water with her daughter on her back to get to her house. "It's very disappointing, that just with an overnight rain of this magnitude, that the city is so ill-prepared."
Most of her home was above the water level, but the ground-level floor, where she had stashed Christmas presents, had 4 inches of water in it before noon, Borne said.
Pumping stations, closely watched since the catastrophic flooding after Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, were working, officials said. But the rain lasted so long, they couldn't keep up, said public works director Jose Gonzalez of Jefferson Parish.
"The rest of the day, we will continue to pump," Gonzalez said. "Hopefully, it's not going to rain as much as it did this morning. ... The amount of rain, that's what hurt us."
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