Just over 14 years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and other parts of America’s southern coast, authorities have retrieved a full car from one of the city’s underground drainage canals.
There had been drainage problems in the Mid-City area that have worsened the impacts of floods in recent years. Now, we know why. Nola.com reported that hundreds of tons of debris had been cleared from the underground plumbing, including this entire Mazda 626.
And it’s out! pic.twitter.com/03drNThNAM
— SWB New Orleans (@SWBNewOrleans) August 22, 2019
The vehicle had been reported missing to the owner’s insurance company on August 29, 2005. That was the day that the worst of the storm hit the city, suggesting that the car was carried off by floodwaters. It was discovered underground, but it was only 76 metres from an open-air section of the canal.
The car, a Mazda 626, definitely looks like it’s been smashed into a canal and pummelled with flowing water for 14 years.
And it’s not the only car. A spokesman for the Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans told Nola.com that they’d pulled a second car, a truck bed and a full sofa out of the clogged canal. A lot of the debris was craned out, which makes sense. It’d take a lot of Drain-O to break down two full cars.