New Orleans officials have no plans now to call for a citywide evacuation, they said Friday as powerful Hurricane Harvey approached the Texas coastline with 130-mph winds.

But if the unpredictable storm, which was expected to make landfall in the middle of the Texas coast by early Saturday, changes course once on land or dips back into the Gulf of Mexico, Mayor Mitch Landrieu said he would revisit the issue of a possible evacuation.

Officials on Friday made a point of declaring the city’s diminished drainage system capable of handling the 5 to 10 inches of rain over several days that Harvey is now expected to generate in New Orleans starting Sunday.

However, the storm is likely to stall over Texas, perhaps creating outer rain bands that would double that total. The problem is, there’s no way of no knowing whether those bands would impact New Orleans, at least not at this stage.

Should a rain band settle over the New Orleans area, it could drop 20 inches in some places, making flooding inevitable.

“What is a concern for us is something that happens that we can’t see, that’s immediate, that’s a huge deluge over a small area or a rain band that extends over a long area,” Landrieu said.

“That’s irrespective of whether the pumps are pumping at 100 percent capacity.”

Harvey is expected to wreak havoc on Texas, bringing more than 20 inches of rain in some areas and possibly more than 35 inches in others.

It is expected to stall over Texas at the very least until the middle of next week, with some models showing it sticking around as long as seven days, National Weather Service meteorologist Ken Graham said.

What that means for the New Orleans area is uncertain. “We have a lot of confidence in the forecast for the next three or four days,” Graham said. “After that, the models deviate.”

If Harvey stalls over Texas but shifts even slightly eastward, the New Orleans area could see torrential rain, even though the center of the storm would be hundreds of miles away.

Such unpredictability was seen during Tropical Storm Cindy earlier this summer, Graham said, when a six-mile change in the trajectory of that storm made the difference between 12 inches of rain and 3 inches of rain for some parts of h.

In addition, a strong high-pressure ridge that is expected over the western U.S. could push what remains of Harvey back over the Gulf, where it could restrengthen and make landfall again in a few days in northeast Texas or southwest h.

Given the variables, Landrieu urged local residents against both panic and nonchalance.

“There is no place for complacency when you have a monster storm in the Gulf of Mexico,” he said.

He assured residents that he is prepared to call for an evacuation if need be. Locations for shelters, on both the east and west banks of the city, have been identified and will be opened if necessary, he said.

New Orleans police and other first responders are ready to switch to 12-hour shifts, should an evacuation order be given. Sandbags were available Friday at five fire stations across New Orleans.

Decisions about closures of schools and public buildings next week will come Sunday, Landrieu added, when meteorologists have a clearer picture of what will happen next.

The electrical system that runs the city’s drainage pumps was able, as of Friday, to generate 27 megawatts of power. That’s with three of the five turbines and 106 of 120 pumps operational, along with 26 backup generators.

With the help of temporary contractors, the city will have all of its non-automated pumping stations manned around the clock starting Monday, said Paul Rainwater, a member of the Sewerage & Water Board’s emergency management team. At automated stations, spotters will be checking to ensure there are no problems.

Since Aug. 6, more than 900 of the catch basins that drain the city’s streets have been cleaned, interim Director of Public Works Dani Galloway said. That’s far short of the city’s target of 15,000, though the city is expected to hire a firm to help it clean more catch basins in the coming weeks.

Work to clean out catch basins, culverts and canals also continues in Jefferson Parish, where officials also were preparing for Harvey’s expected rains.

Chief Operating Officer Keith Conley said two pumps that were out earlier this week — one in Elmwood and one on the West Bank — may be back up and running in time for the heaviest rain, but the parish considers itself prepared either way.

“Out of 180 pumps, it’s not unusual for two to be down for minor repairs or maintenance, so we feel that our system is still at 100 percent,” Conley said.

The parish is expected to man for the first time a new facility in Harahan that pumps water to the nearby river rather than the lake; it would drain 1,200 cubic feet of water per second.

Public Works Director Jose Gonzales said that even if the Elmwood pump, which pumps 500 cubic feet per second, is still down, the new facility should make up for it.

Conley said the parish feels comfortable with the situation in Old Metairie and Old Jefferson, areas served by the New Orleans S&WB’s Pump Station 6. That station, which is on the 17th Street Canal, is now at 75 percent capacity, compared with 54 percent during the floods on Aug. 5, and has plenty of backup power.

“From the reports we’ve had, that pump station is in better shape than it’s been in a while,” Conley said.

He also noted the parish has the capability to pump water into Wally Pontiff Playground to slow the flow of water in Old Metairie into the canals and drainage system.

He said the parish will have operators at Pump Station 6 and will also be represented in New Orleans’ Emergency Operations Center to keep tabs on any issues that could affect Jefferson.

The parish has sent personnel and pumps to Lafitte and Grand Isle, which are outside the federal flood protection system.

Follow Jessica Williams on Twitter, @jwilliamsNOLA​.

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