Car removed from underground drainage canal in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS — Mardi Gras beads could be seen dangling from the trunk of a car as it was removed Thursday from an underground drainage canal in New Orleans.

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City officials discovered the partially submerged vehicle during a Wednesday inspection of drainage infrastructure, officials with the Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans said.

Video inspection of the drainage infrastructure was spurred after heavy rainfall caused flooding in the area and minor overtopping to the Lafitte Canal. The inspection of the canal will continue to a pumping station. The cost is expected to be $100,000, WWL reported.

Officials are not sure how long the vehicle had been in the canal but it had a permit sticker that expired in 2007.

"This is a direct reflection of this team's commitment to a new way of doing things," Ghassan Korban, executive director of the water board, said in a statement. "We saw an issue on July 10 and wasted no time in working to find the root of the problem and develop a solution. While we are committed to finding out what we don't know, conducting these types of inspections is extremely costly. The only way we can move forward with improving our infrastructure is if we do it together."

Cox Media Group