Mandeville city engineers gave a lengthy report a lot recent rains at Thursday night’s City Council meeting,

According to engineers, nearly 7 inches of rain fell across the city in just an hour. That’s equivalent to a 100-year storm event, they said.

They made comparisons to the May 1995 and August 1992 rain events where record rains flooded 35 structures in 1992 and 24 in 1995. The number of structures flooded in the recent rain event was 19, which officials said shows a positive sinking trend. They attributed the low numbers to the ongoing efforts the city is making to correct drainage issues throughout the area, but council members expressed the need to continue efforts until that number can be dropped even lower.

Mayor Eddie Price also expressed his concerns for improving drainage in some areas, but he was pleased overall with the way the city handled the intense storms, particularly with the way the waters vacated the streets an hour and a half after the rain stopped.

But Beau Rivage Homeowner Association President Julie Nolan was not as satisfied with the city’s drainage.

“During previous years water drained when the rain stopped, but last week it took two and a half hours for the water to drain,” she said, adding a neighbor of hers received only an inch of water in his garage during the 1995 flood, but last week he received 1 foot of water in his garage.

Price attributed the higher waters and drainage times to the excessive amount of the rainfall in such a short period of time and the city’s lack of pumping stations.

“We have known we have to do better, and we’re going to do better, but we only have one pumping station and the rest is gravity-fed drainage,” he said. “But you have to remember we live in south Louisiana, and it rains hard here.”

Public works officials said they would investigate the Beau Rivage area to ensure the drainage facilities are up to par.