London Avenue Canal

The London Avenue Canal is a drainage canal in New Orleans, Louisiana, used for pumping rain water into Lake Pontchartrain. The Canal runs through the 7th Ward of New Orleans from the Gentilly area to the Lakefront. It is one of the three main drainage canals responsible for draining rainwater from the main basin of the city of New Orleans. The London Avenue Canal's flood walls built atop earthen levees breached on both sides during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The Canal was constructed in the first half of the 19th century, commissioned by Alexander Milne, who owned large tracts of land that would later become part of the city of New Orleans but were at the time mostly swamp. The canal originally served to commerce of small boat traffic from Lake Pontchartrain to the "Back of Town" section of New Orleans in addition to limited swamp drainage. By the end of the 19th century, with most commerce shifted to other canals specifically designed for shipping, the London Avenue Canal had achieved its modern function to take flow of drainage mechanically pumped from the streets of the City. However early on this was mostly just water from the river-side of the Canal head; most of the area along the Canal in back of Gentilly Ridge remained cypress swamp with a few cow-pastures subject to periodic flooding.

In the early 20th century the old "London Avenue Machine" steam-pump at the head of the Canal was replaced with a more efficient system of high capacity pumps designed by A. Baldwin Wood. Residential development of the areas along the Canal in the Gentilly neighborhood (except along the highest ground along Gentilly Road itself) did not begin until after Wood's improved drainage system was operational. Dillard University was established beside the Canal.

In the 1930s construction of levees along Lake Pontchartrain and the Paris Avenue Canal improved drainage further back along the Canal's borders. With additional lift pumps in place in 1945, the full length of land along the Canal all the way back to the lake was soon developed as residential neighborhoods. A major project of upgrading the floodwalls and bridges along the Canal was begun in 1999.

The London Avenue Canal Levee and floodwall breached on both sides during Hurricane Katrina in late August 2005 at surge levels more than four feet below design specifications. The east breach occurred around 6 to 7 a. m. and sent tons of sand and water into the neighborhood of Mirabeau (5000 Warrington Drive). The west breach occurred around 7 or 8 a.m. and flooded the adjacent neighborhood of Lake Vista (6100 Pratt Drive). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducted expensive emergency efforts to fill the breaches in September; more flooding flowed from the incompletely patched canal during Hurricane Rita the next month, but not enough extent to cause any damage that was not already left from Hurricane Katrina. Water continued to flow from seepage in the temporary levee in lower breach in sufficient quantity to cover nearby streets as late as the first week of January, 2006. That month the Army Corps of Engineers finished temporary repairs of the canal breaches.

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