3% of the water had been pumped out, leaving 6,000,000 cubic yards ?

Question

3% of the water had been pumped out, leaving 6,000,000 cubic yards after 14 hours of pumping. In a news report two days later 6.2 % had been pumped out, leaving 5,800.000 cubic yards of water. Given a linear relationship, how much water was originally deposited in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina?

Answer 1

Assuming the data is correct, 6,000,000 yds^3 / .97 = 6,185,567 yds^3 for the initial water inflow.

2 days later, 5,800,000 yds^3 / .937 = 6,189,968 yds^3.

Since the difference between the two numbers is 4,401 yds^3, we have a pretty decent linear relationship (errors due to rounding).

So the original amount of water was approximately 6,185,567 cubic yards of water or 1,211,844,155 gallons. (1.2 billion gallons)