Page 5 - Pump Systems News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

You've got hurricane-force winds or even tropical storm-force winds coming along. our pump systems have been tested over and over again and found failing in the past. lots of them have been rebuilt and fixed. so things are looking a lot better right now. but our other threat is extremely unusual, and that's that we have this really high mississippi river. it's about 16 feet above sea level right now. >> wow. >> and it could reach 19 feet above sea level on saturday. now officially, the flood level

Threat of flooding and even the possibility the mississippi river could crest over the levees for the first time in modern history. joining me now is mark sclesteen who has been watching and covering the storm closely. mark, what are the three -- what are the major concerns for the army corps and the folks in new orleans who are at moderate risk? >> well, the biggest one really is the rainfall potential. this has the potential of being a huge rainmaker, and that's a real problem for new orleans on a regular day, much less while you've got hurricane-force winds or even tropical storm-force wind...

Where the lake dumps into the river system -- gulf system, that is the most dangerous, east part of new orleans that normally flood when we have high tides like we have now and thunderstorms. so we got a lot of work to do because this storm still has a vote and they can trick you. they're not necessarily going to do what the weather man says. >> we know back in august there was flooding in new orleans. they had issues with their pump systems. at this point, there are still a number of pumps that aren't working correctly. are you worried about that? >> i think they have made a lot of progress s...

If something sits over you at 2 miles an hour, we're ready for it. the impacts have been less than expected, but we're prepared for what's coming our way. >> i'm sure you are. i do understand that the pump systems responsible for keeping new orleans dry, that they have suffered some technical failures this year. is that a concern as the rainfall comes your way? >> well, that's always a concern. but what we have received over the past couple of days, we have been more than capable of handling. of course we have been preparing the entire season for a particular event like this. we feel pretty go...

In this region admire about you is that you are a straight shooter. i talked to the army corps of engineers. they have great confidence and i have walked along where the levy was breached in this area. it looks very different than what it was prior to katrina. they walked me through the pump systems here. all of the billions of dollars put in place here. as i started this sentence saying you're a straight shooter, what do you say? tell me straight. do you have confidence in the engineers and in fema as well? >> absolutely. er with evacuating east bay but where the levies finished in the north ...