This summer, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began construction on a barrier and pumping station designed to protect New Orleans from flooding. The pump will be capable of moving 150,000 gallons per second:
The $500-million station—the newest installment of a $14-billion federal project to fortify the Big Easy against the type of fierce storm the city sees once in 100 years—will protect the 240,000 residents living in New Orleans, a high-risk flood area because of its nearby shipping canals. The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway is one of the city’s most trafficked industrial waterways, but it provides a perfect path from the Gulf for a 16-foot storm surge to flood homes and businesses. When a major storm threatens, the waterway’s new West Closure Complex will mount a two-point defense. First, operators will shut the 32-foot-tall, 225-foot-wide metal gates to block the surge. Then they’ll fire up the world’s largest pumping station, which pulls 150,000 gallons of floodwater per second. And unlike the city’s notorious levees, the WCC won’t break when residents need it most. “This station is designed to withstand almost everything,” including 140mph winds and runaway barges, says Tim Connell, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s project manager for the complex.
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-08/saving-new-orleans-worlds-largest-water-pump
Yes you are missing something. This gate and pump house are not in or even near the Mississippi River.
As a matter of fact, as a flooded resident who rebuilt our home (above the flood line from the federal floodwall failures), I pay real close attention to exactly what the Corps of Engineers is building to protect us from storm surges, but to tell the truth, from this post, I cannot tell which project they are talking about, but I didn't think any one pump station had this large of a capacity. They might be talking about the combined capacity of all three of the new pump stations being built in our three outfall canals.
Our river levees did not fall down. New Orleans was flooded when outfall canal floodwalls' foundations failed and the levees breached long before the storm surge rose to a height for which they were supposed to have designed to withstand because of really bad negligent engineering by engineers employed by the US Army Corps of Engineers as reported in all three of the levee failure investigation reports. They failed long before being overtopped. It was not a natural disaster. Had the engineering not been negligent, there would have been no floodwall failures and 140 very urban square miles of New Orleans would have been just fine.
It's been my family's home since 1765. I feel like a fish out of water whenever I've tried to live anywhere else. After the storm, we tried to figure out where else we could live and could never think of any other place. And then there is that thing where... well... somebody has to live here. My job is tied to our port(s). I kinda gotta live here. And, besides, nowhere else has our food or music and I definitely can't get along without that. Man, we got a lot of real bad problems, and feel abandoned by government at all levels, but it's home.
We rebuilt our home way above the floodline from the levee failures. The Corps put water in our house up to the ceiling fans and we had 9' ceilings and the house was two feet off the ground. That salt water sat for weeks. Still, this time of year, we keep life jackets on the coat rack and a pirogue on the porch.
People have been led to believe many myths about New Orleans. For example: 50% of New Orleans is above sea level. 70% of us had flood insurance which is higher per capita than almost anywhere else. The Lower Ninth Ward is but 2 of the 140 square miles flooded because of the collapse of federal flood control structures in just Orleans Parish, but flooding from the failure of USACE structures also swamped St. Bernard and Plaquimines Parishes. The Mississippi Gulf Coast was destroyed by wind and then storm surge because they saw the right hand side of the storm. Katrina' left hand side collapsed coming ashore and most of its energy was on the east side of the storm.
"why live there?"
I'd be willing to live here on a house boat. If your home town was carpet bombed by the US Army, would you rebuild? We were and we did. My neighborhood is 60% repopulated despite roadblocks tossed in front of us by utility and insurance companies as well as local, state and federal governments.
Why do you live where you livc?
That is the scariest thing. The same idiot engineers that caused our losses tell us to trust them - that they are going to do things right this time, but have proven to be unreliable, not trustworthy and incompetent time after time and we fear they are still dysfunctional.
Heck, they want us to pay cost shares to rebuild flood structures, even though we paid cost shares to the Corps over the past 40 years, for them to build all of the floodwalls that failed and caused the deaths and damage. They consider us disposable idiots unworthy of anything. They are probably just building more movie props. Who knows? They will not accept local oversight.
... So should we then just desert those parts of the land...?
One flood in New Orleans and we just decide to call it quits and walk away...? Forget it- New Orleans is worth way to much to just let it drown- That would about cause the bankruptcy and destruction of the whole of the United States.
If I understand the defense-projects around New Orleans a little bit, it seems that the Brainz have come up with some scheme of interlocking systems. This pump is only one small piece of that puzzle. That whole system SHOULD be made such that if one piece fails, the others can compensate for the loss without endangering the whole system.
You're right, technically it is a propeller judging by the image. For the most part propellers work with axial rotation and impellers work with centrifugal rotation. Most pumps do have impellers, but the configuration shown in the diagram is a propeller.
As we all know the floods are caused by the hurricanes. Man, I'm thinking now!!
Let's slow down the hurricanes. Brilliant!!
We'll convert that fabulous pump appropratly and take it out into the gulf, extend the intakes down into some real cold water and pump it to the top.
that will cool the surface of the gulf.
Since the hurricane's winds are speeded by the warm water of the gulf, cooling the water should slow them down enough to prevent serious damage.
Sounds reasonable after all doesn't it?
Here's wishing all of you continued success and happiness in all your endeavors.