Report: Years of Neglect at Fault in New Orleans’ 2017 Floods

Outside consultants fault New Orleans officials’ long-term neglect of the city’s failing drainage system for widespread flooding last summer.

An ABS Group report, commissioned as a “root cause analysis” by then-Mayor Mitch Landrieu, confirms that the flooding was caused by several factors, including failed drainage pumps, broken turbines, clogged catch basins and undersized pipes. The report also highlights a years-long failure in managing the system.

The system has since undergone $82 million in upgrades, but the report says that isn’t enough to handle a major storm that has a 10 percent chance of occurring in a given year.