Moving ungodly volumes of rainwater away from homes and out of the streets is one of the few things New Orleans' infrastructure does really well. I remember times when I'd be walking down the sidewalk through knee-deep water to get to class, and on my way back 45 minutes later it's basically all gone. A Harvey-level rainstorm would certainly cause damage, but NOLA would probably handle it better than any major city in the country.
Our pumps are so old many are still using wooden screws and run on 25 cycle power. Think how much water we could pull out if the system was upgraded? New Orleans is more prepared to survive than any other city with a few hundred miles of it, including mega cities like Houston.
As was clarified upthread, Wood pumps are not wooden pumps.
Also, there were new pumping stations built after Katrina.
Vastly better than Houston's. Not even remotely comparable. The same rainfall amount that would put Houston under water would have a few streets and underpasses rendered impassible for a few hours in New Orleans and the surrounding areas. My hometown was on the east side near the eyewall when the storm stalled over them for a few hours. Tons of wind damage, virtually zero flooding aside from parking lots and one levee that was damaged from the storm surge.
Do you think the surge in your hometown was high enough the old levees wouldn't have handled it?
Those are the old levees. They didn't even approve the new levee system for that area until this year.
I live in Houston and can attest to that being ridiculously true. This is completely due to government incompetence (mostly local, not state or federal). The lack of remediation after Harvey is just sad. So many missed opportunities. Bill White was the last major who did anything about it, and he took a long term view that his successors have basically ignored.