Tracking Francine: New Orleans Canal underpass flooded, S&WB say backup power generators down

It's gonna be fantastic. All right. So there's obviously been reports of street flooding coming in from all across the metro area. Uh The North shore is just now getting uh that outer eye wall which you know, as Alexa, Alexa just detailed um at this hour though, that flooding has not only caused homes and businesses to take on water, but there have been a couple of people evacuated from home uh where they felt like they couldn't get out in Jefferson Parish, but in Orleans Parish, there are also apparently are some issues where we always see them on those underpasses. Yes, the canal underpass is infamous for this every time that we get any kind of heavy rain and that's where we find Alyssa Curtis. She's been all over New Orleans. What are you seeing at this underpass now? Alyssa? Hey guys. Yeah, we are at the canal underpass at Hidalgo right now. I'm gonna take a step out so you can really see the extent of this flooding. Um There's a police officer stationed right here, so I actually just went to the window. I was like, hey, can you give us an update? Um The water rescue is complete. They were able to get the person out. But th this is exactly why you don't want to drive through these areas. The the flooding here is so, so extensive. Um It's coming out, I would say a block, you know, from the actual underpass, the direct underpass. So this flooding here is really extensive. The flooding at the Carrollton underpass is also really bad. We, we know that one is really infamous as well. People love to drive through that one. Some people get stranded at that one. That one is also looking pretty much exactly like this. The wind out here is picking up, the rain has died down for a little bit. There was no rain. Um But now it is slightly drizzling and nothing, nothing bad at all, especially from when you guys saw me um at the the flooded uh Olive street that is, it's nothing compared to that. Um But definitely very, very windy. Um So police continue to stay inside. I've seen a few people um go outside and kind of check on the damage. Look in all at the street flooding, just watch it on TV. Um It looks better on TV. We do not want you guys outside in these dangerous conditions. I will say um like we just mentioned there was a water rescue earlier. We were trying to get here and uh we almost, I I don't say I wouldn't say we got stuck but, um, we were trying to avoid getting stuck. We were in the Holly Grove area. We had to take some, um, some detours just because of all the street flooding, especially in that neighborhood. Um So we are seeing so much more street flooding than last time I spoke to you guys, um, about an hour ago and an hour and a half ago. Um So a lot more street flooding right now and it seems that it's kind of in that like standing water um portion of the night right now, you can probably hear it is extremely windy right now. It really picked up in the last 20 seconds. I'm not sure if you guys can see um like the tree branches just swaying back and forth really hard. I'm kind of bracing myself as well. I'm sure you guys can hear the wind in the microphone. But again, um this is just not what you guys want to be out, these conditions. You don't want to be out in these conditions either. I know the rain has stopped. Um But it's, it's still not great. Um But this is not unusual we know for the canal underpass um and similar areas like it. Um This is just again, just it's pretty par for the course, but this is why we don't want you guys out here because um it's so easy to get stuck in this area or areas like it, this underpass the Carrollton underpass. Any of these, um, these spots that are prone to flooding. You think that you can make it. Um, you're like, oh, my car is high enough. The water doesn't look that deep. But next thing, you know, you're needing a water rescue and we do not want that. We want you guys to stay as safe as possible. Um, again, the, the rain has died down. It's sprinkling a little bit on and off. but again, nothing like it was an hour to two hours ago. It's really died down. It's really breezy. I had to add some extra layers. I dried off to get some of that water off of me so I can try and warm up just a little bit. Um But it's really breezy, really, really windy. So again, these are just some of the conditions that we're seeing and this is happening all over the city, like I just said, we're in Holly Grove and we're trying to turn on whatever street we could just to get out of the flooding. We were like, oh my goodness, we do not want to be the ones who um are kind of stranded or our car gets hated. So, can you hear us? Alyssa? Just be really careful. Yes, I can. Alyssa, we do have a question for you. Yeah, I know that it's so dark out there but there is, I believe uh some way that isn't there something written on the cinder blocks? How deep the water is, isn't there some type of a measuring? Yes, there is. Can you tell us how deep the water is? Can you see it? Yeah, le let me go walk over. I'm gonna be really safe. Don't worry over there. Is there a car in that too? I believe. So. It, again, it is really dark. It looks like the car may still be over there. It's really hard to see. So I can't say exactly. I do know the officer said that the person was rescued, so they were fine. I am trying to look, I have my contacts and, but it is so dark. I cannot see the measurement but, but it's, it's fairly deep. Um, I, I would say at least a few feet, but I don't wanna give you guys an exact measurement but definitely deep enough that it, it could get scary out there. Oh, absolutely. I, it always accumulates so much quicker down there because it's such a low, uh a low elevation where it dips underneath there. Um, so it's, but, and that's why it's deceiving. That's why a lot of times people drive into it because they don't realize how deep it gets so quickly. Yeah, absolutely. Even just, you know, a normal pothole, we came up on those a few times where like, is it deep, is it a pothole? So we kind of roll down the window and I would look out a little bit and I was like, ok, it's a pothole kind of veered to the left, but you never, you never know. Especially with these New Orleans streets. One minute you're on flat land and then the next one you're like driving down the underpass and it's, it's so much deeper. Um, so, yeah, that it's very common and you, you've driven all over the place today. You were in Holly Grove. Now you're over here. Can you tell us, have you seen any other street flooding on your travels? Definitely. I do want to say earlier this afternoon when it was still light outside, we were trying to head to Venetian Isles. I think you guys saw some of that but the, the road to get out there was just flooded and we, we didn't want to risk it and that was earlier this afternoon. So I'm sure those streets in that area are flooded even more. I'm going to pull up my right here to see where we've been and what areas were flooded. Oh, right in front of Costco by Xavier. Absolutely flooded over there. We, we had to really maneuver over there. The canal over there was, was really rising area. Yeah, before not to, but just I want to stop you there because apparently there are extremely high canal levels. Holly Grove, that canal and Holly Grove is a drainage canal which is an indication that the sewage and water boards drainage system is completely overwhelmed and could indicate a problem with pumping and power and all those things. Now, Joe J, so the city council member recently tweeted that sewer water board is reporting high canal levels in Holly Grove, Lakeview Gilly and maybe New Orleans East. They've had some issues with power. The EM DS that are those backup power generators went down and will likely prolong proper drainage. There are also some issues with power in another part of the city. No reports of widespread down pumps, but this is obviously a sewage and water board issue of the system being overwhelmed and possibly some problems happening. Yeah, that, that would make a lot of sense because again, in that area, not only was there flooding but there were power outages. A lot of those streets were going dark. So that would make absolute sense. Once I get off with you guys, I can make some calls and see if we can get any information from sewage and water board about what's going on or when we can expect some of that pumping to resume. But, yeah, that, that exactly makes sense. Um, flooded streets and some, some power outages in that area. Yeah, that, that seems like a, um, you know, an abnormal amount of water. Um, even at that underpass, even though it floods all the time, it looks like abnormal. Yeah, it has, it's really high and it's also kind of been a while since we've had really heavy rain. Right? Is that is that accurate, Alyssa or are you seeing rain where you are? No, you are absolutely correct. Last time you guys saw me, I want to say it was about an hour ago and we were by the World War Two Museum and it was coming down so, so hard. But when we got in the car and we started driving, we were trying to make it over here after about 10 minutes, it, it stopped raining and it hasn't really rained since then. So I, I would say now, probably about an hour, it's been pretty dry. We'll get some pockets of drizzling, but it is so light of a drizzle that it feels like it compared to what was going on two hours ago, it feels like it's not even raining. But yeah, that we have not had a significant constant downpour in about an hour. I would say definitely is unusual. So I don't know if it's just that the drainage system is struggling to keep up, you know, and that there is a lack of power or what not. But, you know, this, this is certainly an emergent situation and, uh, we're hearing that not only are there overflowing canals and high levels in the canals there in Holly Grove, but parts of lake view is having an issue. Parts of uptown as Alyssa has reported throughout the night.