Hurricane season is now upon us and residents are pointing out that many canals across the city are too clogged with garbage and debris to allow water to drain.
Faced with major flooding issues and seemingly no end in sight, residents are taking it upon themselves to clean up drainage canals.
Drew Ward lead a team of volunteers over the weekend to remove weeds, trash and piles of debris from the Palmetto Canal, but there's still hours of work to be done.
“The only way water can get from this neighborhood is out through these drains so without these being open that neighborhood is going to flood. There's just no way around it, the water just can't go where it needs to go,” Ward said.
Old tires, sandbags, construction signs and bicycles are creating dams along the canal. Of course, everything is tied together with Mardi Gras beads.
It's a major problem but Ward says it's a simple solution- pulling up the weeds and removing the debris. The problem is, so far, maintenance crews have not come out to clean up the canals, leaving the upkeep to residents who are worried that this lack of action will cause their neighborhoods to flood.
Residents are watching the weather, cleaning up the canals and waiting to see their taxes pay off.
“We currently pay lots of money to a very, very heavily funded bloated entity, Sewerage and Water Board, to maintain this,” Ward said. “They're just not doing it.”
Eyewitness News reached out to the city and Sewerage and Water Board and so far have not heard back.
Lauren Bale can be reached at lbale@wwltv.com.