New Orleans, La. -
Hurricane Isaac has likely slowed Mayor Landrieu's plan to have every streetlight damaged during Katrina repaired by the end of the year.
The city was working to repair more than 7,000 streetlights before Isaac hit. Seven years after Katrina, the Landrieu administration was finally closing the gap on repairs to thousands of streetlights across the city.
"The streetlights in front of us were out for a very long time, and they finally got around to fixing it," said Lakeview resident Jon Bell.
"But they were trying, you know. I would call, and they would admit they have a back log," said Victoria Bell, who also lives in Lakeview.
The mayor's goal was to have every streetlight back on by the beginning of 2013 -- a job that city officials said would be a very expensive and complicated task.
"It doesn't require you just to change a light bulb. You have to actually get down into the ground and change the electrical wiring," said Mayor Mitch Landrieu.
"It's a very expensive system based on 20 different types of streetlight fixtures, 10 types of poles, six types of lamps, 15 types of bulbs... it's a hodgepodge of everything," said Deputy Mayor Cedric Grant.
So far, the city says crews have repaired more than 16,000 since Mayor Landrieu took office. And now, after Isaac, thousands more may have been added to the back log.
"Right now we're tracking a little over 8,000 outages citywide," said Ret. Col. Mark Jernigan, now the city's director of public works.
Jernigan says a comprehensive assessment must now be done to find out exactly how many outages occurred after the storm. He says that will take about three weeks. "And at the end of the three weeks, we should have a very good idea of the status of the system and what it's going to take to repair the outages," said Jernigan.
"It's been way too long since Katrina, and I think that we should have... our infrastructure should be well above board, at this point," said Lakeview resident Gayla Meilleur.
The city was awarded just over $27 million in FEMA grants for Isaac damages. Of that, the city says $6 million will be used to repair traffic signals, replace street signs, clear storm drains and restore streetlights.
The city was planning to spend more than $9 million this year, including $8 million in one-time federal recovery money to get the streetlights back on, before Isaac. The city now says those numbers will change as crews continue to assess new streetlight outages.
