NEW ORLEANS — After last Wednesday's rains left many city streets under water, attention has turned to the front end of the drainage system: Catch basins and the pipes connecting them to the system.

The city's Public Works department is beginning an effort to clean and repair about 15,000 catch basins, about one-quarter of the citywide total. City officials announced the plan last week, as well ...

Down the Drain is a WWL-TV investigative project that explores what went wrong and where the blame lies for New Orleans' drainage crisis. Down the Drain was reported and produced by WWL-TV's ...

The paper has continued to report that responsibility for catch basin maintenance was transferred from the Sewerage & Water Board to the City of New Orleans in 1991. The newspaper has made this ...