NEW ORLEANS (AP) – As volunteers hauled soggy insulation out of a flooded store that belongs to a prominent New Orleans social club Wednesday, the group’s president said city pumping problems implicated in weekend flooding were unacceptable.
“It just doesn’t make sense. We are too close to help, supposed to be, for us to flood this way,” Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club president Naaman Stewart said.
He’s part of a mounting chorus of critics outraged about the city’s failures that contributed to flooding that deluged many neighborhoods after torrential rainfall. As a result, some city workers are now out of a job.
The club’s headquarters and store, only blocks from one of the city’s 24 pumping stations, got about 2 to 3 feet (0.61 meters to 1 meter) of water Saturday.
That’s like having your house burn down across the street from a fire station, Stewart said.