resilienty. and we got to make sure we do the same thing across the board. think about how that 760 million west shore project here in southern louisiana will build miles of new levees, pumping stations and drainage structures to provide protection for 60,000 folks in the area. it will change their lives in future storms. the governor has my full support to get this project done. and, folks, i know you re hurting. i know you re hurting. i know the folks in lake charles who i visited earlier this year are still hurting from hurricane laura. i want you to know we re going to be here for you. and with regard to lake charles, i ve put in a request in the budget to provide for help for recovery for lake charles as a consequence of laura and delta.
west shore project here in southern louisiana will build miles of new levies, pumping stations and drainage structures to provide for protection for 60,000 folks in the area. it will change their lives in future storms. i told the governor that he has my full support, and i mean this sincerely, my full support to get this project done. folks, i know you are hurting. i know you are hurting. i know the folks in lake charles who i visited earlier this year are still hurting from hurricane laura. i want you to know we re going to be here for you. and with regard to lake charles, i put in a request in the budget to provide for help for recovery for lake charles as a consequence of laura and delta, two storms that they still haven t been gotten the needs that they met that they have. this isn t about being a democrat or a republican. we re americans and we will get through this together. we just have to remember we not only have to build back, we have
proactively fortify and expand the levee system. they stabilized barriers, reinforced walls with steel. they overhauled pumping stations to reduce flooding. they built a $1 billion surge wall at a key inflection point that extends more than 2 miles long and more than 26 feet high. to avoid the scenario that unfolded 16 years to the day when storm surges overtook the barrier, and it worked. the system is not perfect. there are many who think the erosion of the swampland is something that has to be demt with as well. civil engineers argue there s more to be done to fortify the city, but we manage to avoid the kind of massive failure that happened during katrina, which again that s really good, important stuff. goes to show how important investments and infrastructure can be and why more investments are needed to avoid situations like we saw over the weekend when an electrical tower crumppled in the storm.
was their only option to try to get some fuel. i talked to them, one gentleman told me if i have to drive from here to timbuktu i will just to get that bass and he wants to help other people with it. here s what he told me. we re just trying to help our families, friends, neighbors, whoever we can get some gas in the truck so we can find some ice, water, food, suv like that. louisiana strong. louisiana pride, and i was taught by my mother and father to look after one another. the human race is all we have. reporter: that s a good message obviously for everybody, andry. entergy engineers were out here earlier looking at this damage trying to assess the priorities and there will be 911 call centers and hospitals and pumping stations and they were hopeful to get power back to residents very soon. andrea, back to you. sam, thank you so much for being there in just a moment. senator jeanne shaheen on the situation we left behind in
we don t use it very often but it has a peak capacity of 19,140 cubic feet per second. you are talking about roughly 8.5 million gallons per minute. what that does is allow us to rapidly remove water from inside the system so that the municipal drainage can keep up with the street drainage. it is a complicated system of checks and balances so to speak. what it does when we have to run it and this is only the second time the flood authority has ever had to run this thing for a storm event, it allows us to get the level of protection that the federal government designed and provided us. it is a stunning amount of water to be able to pump. absolutely extraordinary. i did read the authority manages i think 80 miles of levees, the flood walls, the structures, i think 70 or 68 gates, three pumping stations. just how expensive and complicated is this system?