The head of the city of Shreveport's streets and drainage department said today the drainage system worked as well as could be reasonably expected during Tuesday's rainfall deluge -- but his office will look at a drainage system where much of the flooding occurred.
That happened in part of the South Highland neighborhood that is built right alongside Ockley Ditch, which snakes through the neighborhood.
Much of the flood damage occurred at Normandy Village apartments, which are located just south of Mall St. Vincent. More than 200 homes flooded in Shreveport.
Private contractors were doing cleanup at the apartment complex today and the city sent in a fleet of sanitation trucks into the flooded area to haul off damage carpet and household items.
Every drainage ditch and canal in the city will be checked to make sure they are not blocked by debris. So much rain fell Tuesday night and Wednesday morning that drainage ditches looked like river rapids.
A Porsche was swept away at Normandy Village, wound up in the ditch and found downstream near First Baptist Church.
Strong said his department will evaluate the ditches in the Ockley-Fairfield area to see if their capacity can be increased. But he said there probably was little that can be done because homes are built so close to the ditch.
The last major drainage-improvement project in Shreveport was in the Sand Beach Bayou area of Youree Drive in southeast Shreveport. That area still had high water, in large part because of the volume of rain, which set all-time records for the amount of rainfall in one-, two- and three-hour periods.
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