Louis Armstrong airport briefs Kenner council on hurricane readiness; airport pump station now has manual-start capability

City of Kenner council members heard a presentation from officials of the Louis Armstrong New Orleans Airport on the airport’s hurricane-season preparations and the status of a stormwater pump station that serves airport property and contributes to parish drainage.

Airport Director Kevin D'Oleo and Walter Krajalski, deputy director of operations and maintenance, briefed the council on the airport’s Hurricane Condition (Hurcon) tiers, staffing and equipment checks, and recent changes to the small pump station in the northwest corner of airport property.

The briefing matters to Kenner because the airport is a regional recovery hub during storms and because runoff and drainage from airport property tie into Jefferson Parish systems. The update responded to a state concurrent resolution asking the New Orleans Aviation Board to brief local officials on hurricane preparedness and to questions raised by Kenner residents after past flooding events.

Krajalski said the airport’s hurricane plan is reviewed annually and uses Hurcon levels tied to storm timing to trigger actions such as securing facilities, topping off fuel and equipment, positioning recovery materials and activating the airport emergency operations center. “It’s a living and breathing document that we review annually in anticipation of the hurricane season,” Krajalski said.

He described operational details: the airport maintains a ride-out crew of more than 60 staff who come on no later than about 12 hours before a storm and remain through initial recovery; the North terminal has full generator backup and can run on generator power; the South campus is kept for emergency-essential systems; generators and canal rakes are tested weekly; and the airport coordinates frequent communications with airlines, TSA, FAA and concessionaires to speed recovery after a storm.

On the pump station, Krajalski said the facility, placed in service in 2017, has four pumps and a pumping capacity of about 600 cubic feet per second (CFS). He told the council that 600 CFS represents roughly 2% of the East Bank pumping capacity cited on the Jefferson Parish website (the parish total cited by the airport was 30,000 CFS). Krajalski said the airport added manual-start capability to the station so pumps can be started if the automation fails.

“The pump station operated as intended and normally” during two recent heavy-rain events — April 21 (about 4.33 inches in a three-hour window) and June 14 (about 3.8 inches in a shorter period) — Krajalski said. The airport performs visual inspections of the pumps and pipes, weekly generator tests and monitoring; Jefferson Parish has SCADA visibility into pump operation, he added.

Director D'Oleo described longstanding mutual-support arrangements with Kenner and Jefferson Parish during hurricanes: the airport can house up to 100 Kenner public vehicles in its South Terminal parking garage and can shelter three fire vehicles and up to 10 fire personnel in airport aircraft rescue and firefighting facilities.

Councilman Kyle Swarth asked whether airport expansion under the master plan would increase runoff and whether pump capacity could be increased in short-, mid- or long-term plans. D'Oleo said the airport is completing an updated master plan that forecasts demand and identifies a phased program for additional gates and terminal capacity; the plan shows a potential need for about 15 additional gates and a second terminal in the long term. He said the airport will coordinate with the city on potential impacts and that they have been advocating for sewer and drainage funding at the federal level to address system pressures as growth continues.

Councilwoman Dunn asked about the future of the east end of the old terminal. D’Oleo said the older east-end concourse (the AB end) is planned for demolition; other portions (the C concourse and associated space) will remain in use for charters, cargo and airport operations. D'Oleo said UPS has expanded operations on the west apron and that the site where AB existed is a likely candidate for an aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility or other redevelopment.

During public comment, resident Richard Brown of District 4 thanked airport officials for recent openness but criticized an earlier period when the airport declined to release an engineering report after Hurricane Francine. Brown asked several operational yes/no questions; airport staff confirmed that pumps are working, the automatic start function is working, pumps can be started manually and that the station will be staffed or monitored in the event of a major flood event.

Krajalski and D'Oleo closed by emphasizing the airport’s role as a recovery asset and that final commercial flight decisions are made by airlines (the airport typically sees commercial service scale back around H-minus 18 or when sustained tropical-storm-force winds reach about 40 mph). D'Oleo noted that unless infrastructure is damaged, the airfield can remain open to recovery flights even when terminals are closed to ticketed passengers.

Kenner officials asked to receive the airport’s presentation slides for reference; airport staff agreed to provide them, and said they will continue coordinating with Kenner’s emergency manager and other local stakeholders.

Ending: The presentation and follow-up questions concluded with the council thanking the airport delegation for the briefing and information; no formal council action was taken on the presentation itself.