Complaints about lack of notice about Hurricane Isaac flooding, nonfunctioning pumps and the abrupt ...

1. St. John residents discuss flooding, pumps at council
meeting
Complaints about lack of notice about Hurricane Isaac flooding, nonfunctioning pumps and the
abrupt shutdown of the parish water system were among the issues citizens raised Tuesday night
with the St. John the Baptist Parish Council, and parish officials say they want to hear more. It was
the first Parish Council meeting since Hurricane Isaac came ashore on Aug. 29 and resulted in
widespread flooding of thousands of homes and required the emergency evacuation of nearly 4,000
residents.
Council members scheduled another meeting for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Percy Hebert Building in
LaPlace to give residents who couldn't travel to the meeting in Edgard a forum to voice concerns
and ask questions.
"The topic is Hurricane Isaac . . . and healing," Council Chairman Lucien Gauff III said.
At Tuesday's meeting, St. John Assessor Whitney Joseph told the council that residents whose homes
have flooded will see their assessments drop from previous levels in neighborhoods that flooded.
"Who's going to want buy a house back there when there's no levee protection?" He asked. "So we
are going to make some adjustments. Take note of several straightforward refinements that. Most
installed pumps were not originally designed for their present function. Very frequently, a line in a
facility is moved and a pump that once providedcooling water to an injection molding machine is
now needed to move oil from a rail car to a tank. Unfortunately, this leads to many problems for the
pump and the facility. Pumps operate where the pump curve crosses the system curve. If you
relocate a pump from one system to another, this means that the system curve is different. This new
system may cause the pump to operate away from its best efficiency point, leading to vibration and
other component problems that are merely symptoms of a mis-matched pump and system.are able to
be madeto a common
centrifugal or positive displacement pump. In pumps containing overhung impellers, changing to a
solid shaft is a simple adjustment in relation to industry standard sleeved shafts. Mechanical seals
can be improved with tungsten carbide faces, and elastomers are better when changed to Viton. In
conclusion, magnetic bearing protectors would be a vast improvement in relationship to the lip seals
which nearly all industrial pumps depend on to keep bearing sump oil clean.
If we don't do enough this year, we'll do some more next year."
Council members were besieged with complaints about how abruptly the parish water supply was
cut off on Aug. 29, but Utilities Director Virgil Rayneri told the panel that water around one of the
parish's wells at its Ruddock plant rose so quickly that it flooded one water well in Ruddock as well
as two pump stations that move the water from the well to the parish's treatment plant in LaPlace.
"The system was going down anyway," Rayneri said, in response to questions from Councilwomen
Jaclyn Hotard and Cheryl Millet.
The Ruddock well is in the Maurepas swamp, an area subject to flooding.

2. "We had a choice of being down for a month, or being down for 12 hours," Rayneri said. "It took us 2
½ hours to get back there, and the only way we were able to do it is to get the National Guard to
help us."
Rayneri said the parish is building a levee using Hesco baskets around the pump stations, and using
pumps to keep the machinery dry.
Parish President Natalie Robottom told the council that there wasn't enough time to notify residents
before the shutdown.
Other residents were concerned about drainage.
Aquiana Brown said her family had lost houses in the Cambridge subdivision, as well as her parents'
home on Persimmon Street in LaPlace, where a major project to reroute drainage water into the
Mississippi River had recently been completed.
Public Works Director Brian irrigation pump systems Nunes said that generators powering the
pumps for the area had taken on water and shorted out.
Gauff said Wednesday that eight homes on both sides of one section of Persimmon had gotten
enough water to damage floors and furniture.
He also said council members know that residents need help.
"No, your complaints are not falling on deaf ears," he said. "We're trying to get these resources to
you. We're trying to get you some help."
On Wednesday, parish officials announced the opening of a small-business recovery center at Eliza
Eugene Enterprises in the New Wine Complex, 2015 W. Airline Highway in LaPlace.
Small Business Administration Disaster Recovery Center, Louisiana Small Business Development
Center, South Central Planning and Development, Louisiana Economic Development, Eliza Eugene
Enterprises, and Accion will be located at the center. Resource providers will assist businesses in
securing federal or state disaster loans, providing post-disaster counseling, and offering technical
assistance.
All services will be free, officials said.
The center will be open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m., beginning today, and by
appointment only on Saturdays.
Matt Scallan can be reached at mscallan@timespicayune.com or 985.652.0953.