After extreme flooding in New Orleans, Mayor Mitch Landrieu calls for repairs to the city's drainage system and has placed blame for the drainage failures on top officials at the Sewerage & Water Board.

Curbed New Orleans reported that the Sewerage & Water Board lost a turbine on Thursday, Aug. 10 that powers the city's pumping stations that will drain the East Bank of New Orleans.

The drainage systems began to break down Saturday when six pumps became unavailable. According to CNN, two similar ones in other parts of the city are still offline. 

"Because of the visuals of (Hurricane) Katrina, people keep thinking New Orleans is different than everybody else," the mayor said. "It is absolutely true that the infrastructure in this country is crumbling at a scary pace, and what you just witnessed was infrastructure … that was unable to keep up with our threats … We just got really smacked in the wrong place at the wrong time."

An official from the board announced at a 7 a.m. news conference that the pumping system can handle about an inch of rainfall before standing water happens. However, the flooding has overtaken neighborhoods west of the Industrial Canal according to the mayor's office.  

Around 9 a.m.,  Landrieu announced that the city's drainage system has enough power from Entergy to work for now. But if that goes down, he is unsure what will happen next, per The Times-Picayune.  

Meanwhile, public works director, Mark Jernigan, resigned earlier this week on Aug. 8. But he isn't the only one on the chopping block. According to The Times-Picayune, Landrieu is pushing for the terminations of 30-year employee Joseph Becker, the Sewerage and Water Board's general superintendent, and the utility's chief spokeswoman, Lisa Martin. 

"The city is urging residents in the affected area to move their vehicles to higher ground, take necessary actions to protect personal property, and stay off of roadways during rain storms unless an emergency makes it absolutely necessary to do so," Landrieu said in a statement.