Liberals gather in Atlanta to plan Trump resistance strategy

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/liberals-gather-in-atlanta-to-plot-trump-resistance-strategy/2017/08/09/0849c156-7c68-11e7-9d08-b79f191668ed_story.html?utm_term=.62d16e326d04

By Nicole Chavez and Michelle Krupa, CNN
Updated 10:02 AM ET, Sat August 12, 2017

Louisiana's governor has declared a state of emergency in New Orleans as officials and residents scrambled in the aftermath of last Saturday's heavy storm that left hundreds of homes and businesses flooded.

With more rain in the forecast, New Orleans leaders rushed to deal with a series of malfunctions in the city's drainage system -- and to face a critical public after some local officials waited days to reveal the full extent of system failures.

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Because of New Orleans' unusual topography -- with many areas below sea level and protected by levees -- pumps in every neighborhood must suck rainwater out of storm drains and canals and push it into a nearby lake or other water bodies. In most other places, gravity does that work.

This time, unlike during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, a huge amount of rain falling in a very short period of time caused the flooding. The rain tested the drainage system -- not the chain of levees, flood walls and pumps that the federal government built after Katrina.

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Within three to four hours on Saturday, as much as 8 to 10 inches of rain fell across New Orleans.

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tags: extreme weather, severe weather