Balloon Causing Temporary Power Outage Leads to Water Service Disruption for Thousands in New Orleans

A recent incident near a water treatment plant in New Orleans caused by a small balloon hitting a utility line resulted in a brief power outage, followed by a drop in water pressure. The situation escalated with a worker getting seriously injured while attempting to restart water pumps, leading to a boil water advisory expected to remain in effect until Thursday afternoon.

The occurrence on Tuesday evening shed light on the vulnerability of New Orleans’ infrastructure, particularly its drinking water and street drainage systems, and highlighted the recurring issue of Mylar balloons interfering with power lines. Entergy New Orleans, the city’s electricity provider, explained that a Mylar balloon caused a momentary low voltage disruption at the water treatment plant, causing four pumps to shut down, as disclosed by the Sewerage and Water Board’s executive director.

Water pressure was sustained temporarily by water from large tanks at the plant, as mentioned by Ghassan Korban during a news conference on Wednesday. Typically, the pumps would have been back in operation promptly to prevent a pressure drop. Unfortunately, one worker involved in the pump restoration process sustained a significant injury, requiring immediate medical attention from colleagues, resulting in a delay and subsequent water pressure decrease.

Authorities noted that low water pressure could potentially allow bacteria to enter the water system, prompting a precautionary boil water advisory for most of the city’s approximately 370,000 residents. Korban mentioned that improvements at the water plant have reduced the frequency of boil water advisories in recent years and mentioned plans to establish a power system for the city’s street drainage network to decrease reliance on Entergy, seeking funding to integrate this with the drinking water system.