After Hurricane Katrina, generators installed above the flood that struck New Orleans continued to run, while those at ground level drowned.
Where should standby generators go? Routine locations include a basement utility area or a concrete pad at ground level behind a building—but the flooding associated with Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans submerged many such installations.
By contrast, generators installed above the level of the flood performed well and continued to perform until they were turned off as buildings were evacuated for security issues and health concerns raised by standing water.
The ease with which many generators drowned in New Orleans should alert building designers working in a flood zone anywhere. Instead of sequestering noisy, unsightly equipment in a subterranean hideaway, architects and engineers should place boiler rooms and emergency generators as strategically as surgery suites and neonatal intensive care units—well above the ground floor in a protected location with significant ventilation.
“Before Hurricane Katrina we followed design requirements and installed generators where we now know they never should have been located. They all were submerged in water—a very costly lesson,” says Chad Lemoine, a New Orleans-based sales representative for Stewart & Stevenson, LLC of Houston, TX, a Detroit Diesel Corp. distributor. “My best guess is that 75–100 major New Orleans facilities lost all of their backup generators.”
In April of 2006, S&S still had back orders to replace destroyed generators for businesses, hospitals, and schools. He hoped they would be delivered and installed before the height of the 2006 hurricane season.
Orders for many other installations haven’t been placed yet because their owners haven’t secured funding for replacement generators. At least eight generators at the Louisiana State University Medical School in downtown New Orleans were flooded and need to be replaced.
“At the LSU Medical School and in other hospitals and institutions, there’s a push to install the new generators on higher floors, but doing that increases the cost,” Lemoine says.
Suman Jolly, an electrical engineer, owns Jolly Consulting Inc., in New Orleans. “We are now elevating generators in emergency call centers, hospitals and nursing homes, prisons, designated shelters, and other public buildings to high elevations or to the roof of two-floor buildings,” he says.
Pumping Station Improvements
With much of New Orleans built below sea level, the city relies on pumping stations for drainage after a heavy rain or a levee breach. “New Orleans plans to spend millions to build shelters at each pumping station so pump operators will be safe to ride out hurricanes through a Category 5 storm,” Jolly says. “All pumping stations’ pumps now have backup generators, and some are being automated with remote controls in case something happens to the operator.
“All of the pumping stations have their own diesel tanks. Pumping station generators vary in size from 1.500 MW to 3 MW and are many different brands. New generators are being installed on higher platforms, 15–30 feet above ground level depending on the individual site’s elevation.”
In much of New Orleans, grid power is distributed underground instead of on poles. When the city flooded after Hurricane Katrina, the distribution system in flooded basements was lost.
“We learned a hard lesson,” Lemoine says. “Our generator business has grown every year, and not particularly because of the 2005 hurricanes.”
The sheer magnitude of electrical outage, in New Orleans and elsewhere in Katrina’s path along the Gulf Coast, demonstrated the fragility of the power grid and the importance of alternative sources of power.
Flooding is worse than wind. Surging floodwaters can move entire buildings. Those that remain bear horizontal stripes, showing the height that the flood reached and intermediate stages in its slow ebb. Buildings so marked show the minimum elevation at which new generator installations must be placed. The best such installations will be within the protective envelope of a building’s structure, but where that kind of space doesn’t exist and can’t be created, the next best place is a rooftop.
Wind can blow away even heavy equipment that isn’t securely anchored. Hardening a rooftop generator installation may involve the use of long bolts to attach the skids to I-beams anchored in the roof structure, or set in epoxy-filled holes drilled in a concrete roof. Then roofers seal the area around the bolts so it doesn’t leak.
First Responders
Hurricane Katrina made landfall west of New Orleans at Buras-Triumph, LA, early on Monday Aug. 29, 2005, as a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 125 mph and hurricane-force winds extending 120 miles outward from the eye. The storm swept across the city and spread eastward into Mississippi and Alabama.
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| Hardening a rooftop generator installation may involve the use of long bolts to attach the skids to the I-beams. On concrete roofs, the bolts may be set in epoxy-filled holes. |
In New Orleans, Katrina challenged the integrity of 350 miles of levees along Lake Pontchartrain and several canals. The 17th Street Canal, the London Avenue Canal, the Industrial Canal along the Intracoastal Waterway, and the eastern New Orleans levees were breached or topped by the storm surge. Also, a barge broke lose from its moorings and punched a hole in one of the levees. About 80% of Orleans Parish (the City of New Orleans) was flooded, as were most of neighboring Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes.
Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard turned off his parish’s pumping systems and evacuated the operators during the storm, a decision on which flooding of most of the east bank has been blamed.
Three days after Katrina struck, S&S technicians Wayne Estrada and Peter Robichaux, and the latter’s son, Jeffrey P. Robichaux, preventive maintenance foreman, returned to the firm’s complex in suburban Jefferson Parish.
“They found wind and rain damage—about 6 inches of standing water, our roofs practically blown off, and the big sliding bay doors blown off the front and back of our shop,” says Gary J. Eiermann, electrical shop supervisor.
“Before considering our own cleanup and restoration, they collected supplies to help Jefferson Parish obtain and install temporary generators for the emergency preparedness office, hospitals, and courthouse. Everyone was down and screaming for portable generators. Fortunately we had a few rental units here waiting to be shipped back to our Houston office.
“Our Houston office emptied their warehouse to send us all of their rental generators, and took care of requests and installations for us so we could concentrate on servicing in-place generators to get our clients up and going as quickly as possible.”
In the days following Hurricane Katrina, S&S’s staff serviced hundred of generators from all manufacturers. “About 70% of all the generators we saw could be salvaged, and about 30% could not be,” says Jeffrey Robichaux.
The technicians used Nextel cell phones and radios, which worked intermittently because of high caller volume. “They were our main means of communication with our co-workers and our clients that use Nextel service, including the VA Hospital,” Robichaux says.
For a few days after Katrina, several S&S employees stayed at Jeffrey Robichaux’s home in the city of Marrero in Jefferson Parish. “The nights were scary,” he says. “You could hear a pin drop. My house sustained only minor cosmetic and roof damage. Our families stayed where they evacuated to, while we returned as first responders. Utility power was off but we had natural gas and hooked up a portable generator so we had warm showers, were able to cook, and had some lights. We were able to watch WWL-TV (Channel 4), the New Orleans CBS affiliate that stayed on the air through Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.”
WWL-TV has a 1.5 MW Caterpillar 3512B generator with a 10,000-gallon double-walled fuel tank at its Rampart Street studio and a 1 MW Caterpillar 3508B generator with a 10,000-gallon tank at its remote transmitter.
Keeping Fuel Flowing
For generators that continued to operate after Katrina, obtaining and protecting fuel became major concerns. For years, consultants have advised emergency planners to develop post-disaster diesel-fuel sources. Katrina showed that the arrangements should include both nearby and distant sources, and provisions for secure delivery.
After public services in New Orleans broke down, the military and other government agencies commandeered fuel supplies destined for private purchasers. At the same time, the S&S crew had military escorts when transporting fuel around the city to service their customers.
“Employee safety was a major concern,” Robichaux says. “People held up other people for diesel and unleaded fuel.
“We keep stored on our site about 6,500 gallons of diesel fuel that we shared with customers. Because of the high water, it was hard for a while to get diesel tankers into the city. When phone service was impossible, new customers simply flagged down our trucks and asked for fuel. We have no way to telling how many companies and individuals we helped.”
Katrina also demonstrated the need for a different kind of protection, to prevent clogging of fuel lines and filters. “After Katrina, we discovered significant problems with what commonly is called algae and fungus. It’s really a slime and sludge, consisting of clustered diesel-fuel particles,” says Robichaux.
To break down these clusters, S&S uses products made by Algae-X International, Inc., of Ft. Myers Beach, FL. “Because of the way diesel fuel is manufactured, it is naturally unstable,” says John Bennett, Algae-X operations manager. “Its quality and chemistry are continuously degraded by transportation and storage from refinery to user; oxidation; heat and pressure of engines, pumps, and injectors; and water and microbial contamination.”
Robichaux says his firm installed Algae-X filters between generator tanks and primary filters; and used an Algae-X fuel additive and combustion catalyst, AFC-705. “These items provide superior fuel quality for engines and storage tanks, and reduce operating costs, maintenance, and downtime,” he says.
Stories to Share
Everyone in New Orleans has a story to share.
A military veteran who drives a taxi for United Cab Company didn’t evacuate. He has a residential generator and a gun, so he stayed to protect his home and those of his neighbors who fled. Friends appeared with containers of diesel fuel to keep his generator going. He never asked where they got the fuel.
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| Generators installed above the level of the flood performed well and continued to perform until the buildings were evacuated for security issues and health concerns. |
A hotel administrator stayed in her property during Katrina. Afterwards, the buses she secured to transport her guests were commandeered by the government, forcing her to make alternative arrangements. This same person received an exorbitant proposal from a contractor for installation of a home generator.
Some companies in flooded areas have resumed business operations, and are letting employees live on their land in trailers supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency until other housing becomes available.
Stacks of debris have been carried off, only to be replaced by more as dwellings and commercial buildings are gutted or leveled. Scattered around buildings that were flooded are generators awaiting replacement. You can tell they were flooded because of their flood lines.
S&S has installed 60 Detroit Diesel 50DSEJB emergency generators in and around New Orleans for Atlanta-based Cingular Wireless. “Our generators ran throughout the storm, even when no one had power and everyone was trying to communicate with their cell phones. Cingular’s towers stayed up and our generators kept Cingular’s cell phone system operating,” Lemoine says
Just before the 2005 hurricane season began, S&S installed two 750 kW Spectrum Detroit Diesel generators in a self-contained housing for JP Morgan Chase’s New Orleans Data Center. “The generators are tied into a switchboard that allows them to run in full parallel,” says Robichaux. “They stayed high and dry and worked through the storm and for about three weeks afterwards until the Entergy New Orleans power grid was repaired. Our client is extremely pleased that their generators did everything we said they would.”
Located on a platform at the back of JP Morgan Chase’s building, each generator sits atop a 500-gallon day tank, into which fuel is pumped from three aboveground 3,000-gallon diesel tanks set inside raised concrete cradles.
Hotel de La Monnaie
At Hotel de La Monnaie, a 54-room boutique timeshare hotel in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood, the hero of Katrina is a 350 kW Detroit Diesel generator sitting atop a 600-gallon diesel storage tank in the parking garage. It produces enough electricity to power the entire property, including air conditioning, elevators, refrigerators, and all lights. Smart management and owners’ association members decided to purchase it in 1999, and it was installed the following year. It turns on automatically whenever the local electric grid fails, which happens often.
“Entergy New Orleans, Inc., has old transformers that can’t handle peak demand, especially during the summer,” says Ronald Marinello, chief engineer for Hotel de la Monnaie. “Sometimes we would go down for hours. We also could lose power after a thunderstorm. With our generator we never lose power.”
Except for the noise the generator makes, owners and guests never know when it is on. “When there’s a power blackout at night, we could walk out of our fire station and everywhere we look it is always dark, except for Hotel de la Monnaie,” says Capt. Donald G. Maitre of the New Orleans Fire Department’s Creole Engine No. 9 firehouse at 449 Esplanade Ave., just up the street from Hotel de la Monnaie at 405 Esplanade Ave.
New Orleans firehouses, as part of their emergency plan, make safety arrangements for their crews and equipment. Years ago the firemen of Creole Engine No. 9 asked the Hotel de La Monnaie’s management to host them during hurricanes. The hotel’s staff trained the firemen to operate and care for the generator.
When a hurricane is announced, William W. Prentiss, general manager of Hotel de La Monnaie, gives guests a 12-page compilation of hurricane articles so they will know what to expect. The front cover of his handout reminds New Orleans visitors that in 1965 Hurricane Betsy inundated the Ninth Ward and that even a weaker storm could place parts of New Orleans under 20 feet of water. In 1998, Hurricane Georges brought a 7.8-foot storm surge to New Orleans after making landfall in Biloxi, MS.
When the Katrina hurricane warning was announced, Maitre confirmed his agreement with the Hotel de la Monnaie and moved into the resort with district 503 Chief Gary Haydel and 36 firemen from three neighborhood firehouses: 15 men from Creole Engine No. 9, nine men from Ladderhouse No. 11, and 12 men from Squirt/Engine House No. 27. Also riding out the hurricane at the resort were eight guests, Reservation Manager Susan Doucette, and six members of her family.
“New Orleans lost city power late Sunday night [Aug. 28] or early Monday morning,” says Doucette. “We couldn’t tell, because our generator performed as it was supposed to. It turned itself on and ran our air-conditioning system and lights.
“The storm passed on Monday. We weathered it well except for some second-floor broken doors and shaken guests. They were new to hurricanes and didn’t know what to expect. The firemen came and went, doing their jobs.”
“We stayed in Hotel de la Monnaie with the firemen until around 8 p.m. Tuesday, when the firemen relocated to a central staging area for the fire department on higher land in Algiers on the east side of the Mississippi River.”
Then Doucette and the firemen turned off the generator and locked the resort’s doors. “The firemen took us with them in a caravan of fire equipment and our personal cars,” she says.
When the firemen could return, they camped out on cots in Hotel de la Monnaie’s lobby. Creole Engine No. 9 firemen obtained hard-to-find diesel fuel from a variety of sources. Driver Ronnie Schwankhart flagged down a visiting New York Fire Department diesel-fuel truck. “The New York fireman filled up my truck, and also topped off the tank of the Hotel de la Monnaie generator,” says Schwankhart. “We exchanged names, but I’ve moved a couple of times and have lost his name.”
Prentiss and his wife, Susan, returned to Hotel De La Monnaie on Oct. 1. He contacted all 17 of the resort’s full-time employees, of whom 12 have returned.
Hotel de la Monnaie’s generator ran for the firemen and continued running for Prentiss until Entergy restored grid power to the resort in October.
“Recently we lengthened the exhaust stack by 7 feet, extending it up and over the building next door for better ventilation,” Marinello says.
A Light on the Roof
Basement flooding that drowned generators and service equipment has delayed the reopening of several prominent New Orleans hotels, including The Ritz-Carlton New Orleans in the French Quarter, with 452 rooms, and The Fairmont New Orleans downtown, with 701 rooms.
It’s a different story at the 570-room Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter, which has rooftop generators. Nearby residents who rode out Katrina at home view as a symbol of hope the brightly lit M on the roof the 16-story hotel.
The Monteleone family has owned a hotel on Royal Street since 1886. Their roof sign was made of individual light bulbs until the 1970s, when it was converted to neon tubes. “Many people have called us about our sign,” says Rick Lotz, the hotel’s chief engineer. “Our sign is connected to our emergency power system, and was on until we turned it off in October to allow repairs to be made to the sign’s sheet metal and neon lights.”
Since 2004, the hotel has had two 300 kVA Onan diesel generators on the roof and a third in its mechanical room. “The roof generators are standby power for our seven passenger and three freight elevators,” says Lotz. “After the storm and until Entergy New Orleans restored service, we rented two General Electric portable 18-wheeler generators. One was 2 MW and the other was 600 kVA.
“Eighty percent of the people working in the hotel during the storm had their families with them. We stayed in the hotel until Tuesday, when we were told to evacuate the French Quarter.”
Natural Gas Solves Fuel Problem
The Homewood Suites Hotel on Poydras Street, a 12-story property with 166 full suites, is a favorite with extended-stay business guests. “The roof of our hotel was designed to have a 60GSG Detroit Diesel generator,” says John Romano, general manager.
“Before the generator was installed the design was changed from diesel to natural gas. We had to convince the fire marshal to let us to make this change. After Katrina, we were glad we made the change, and the fire marshal is now a believer. Our generator performed through the hurricane and after without interruption. The natural gas never stopped and we did not have to search for diesel fuel.”
The Homewood Suites generator withstood winds believed to have been about 125 mph. “We lost an antenna, bathroom vents, and a blower motor housing, but our generator was not disturbed,” says Romano.
“Our generator supplies emergency power and lights to our stairways, main corridors, public areas, one public elevator, and one service elevator. Our hotel engineer modified our emergency power to extend coverage to our full-size commercial refrigerators and freezers in our kitchens. We had ample power and did not lose anything.
“We’re pleased with our decision to install our generator, and when we visit the generator on the roof we pat it on the back and say sweet things to it.”
VA Medical Center
The New Orleans VA Medical Center had 18 feet of water in its sub-basement, reports Phil Boogaerts, general engineer. “Lucky for us our generators sit about four feet above street level,” he says. “There was some water on the floor nearby, but not enough water to harm our five generators.”
Boogaerts stayed in the building through the storm, and for the first month afterwards. Two days after the storm when the flooding began, S&S sent two employees, David Gray and Chris Parker, to keep the generators operating.
Gray and Parker spent a total of three weeks at the medical center, rotating in and out by boat for a week at a time. On the job they slept and ate when they could.
The VA Medical Center has five VA generators: four 600 kW Caterpillars (a 3306 and three D349s); and one Kohler 440 kW generator. The three Caterpillar D349s run in full parallel with 22 transfer switches tied into a fully automatic board with six programmable controllers from Siemens AG that S&S also maintains.
“If at any time a transfer switch loses grid power, all three Caterpillar generators start up, and their load-management system looks at the amount of required power, decides which generators need to run, and shuts down the ones not required until they are needed,” says Jeffrey Robichaux. “These three generators will run the whole hospital except for the boiler plant, which has its own backup Caterpillar 3306, and the nursing home backed up by the Kohler 440 kW generator.
“Parker and Gray were responsible for everything. When rising water threatened in the VA basement, they shut off some of the transfer switches. The water level in the basement reached about 13 feet, and the water outside the VA rose to about 5-7 feet.”
On a day off from his VA assignment, Chris Parker flew by helicopter from his home in Slidell, LA, to Memorial Hospital in New Orleans. He worked there until FEMA closed the hospital, which was surrounded by polluted water.