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The US Army Corps of Engineers has closed a major gap in the New Orleans levees battered by Hurricane Katrina and is pumping water from the flooded city, an agency spokesman says.
The Corps was still working to plug another major breach in the levees built to keep out the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, which nearly surround the city, spokesman John Hall said.
The levees broke in several places when Katrina blew through on Aug. 29 with a massive storm surge.
Hall said the eastern part of New Orleans was swamped by 6 metres of water in the storm. As much as 80% of the city was flooded.
The city, most of which lies below sea level, has an extensive pump system to pump out floodwaters, but the hurricane knocked most of the pumps out of commission.
Hall said the biggest pump in the system, which can push out 280 cubic metre of water per second, had been turned on on Monday, but was pumping out just 2.8 cu m per second and would be turned up slowly to full capacity.
"We are proceeding very gently," he said. Engineers want to make sure that the pumped out water does not further damage the levee system and create a new breach.
In four places, the Corps has punched holes in the levee system to allow water to drain out of the city, Hall said.
The Corps has estimated it will take as long as 80 days to get rid of the floodwaters
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