Questions remain about the crushed car that was pulled from one of New Orleans' underground drainage canals last week, but authorities at least know now when it went missing: during Hurricane Katrina.

An insurance claim filed for the 2002 Mazda 626 indicated it had been lost on Aug. 29, 2005, the day the storm hit the city, according to a New Orleans Police Department report.

That would mean it sat, undiscovered, for almost exactly 14 years before its deteriorated carcass was pulled from a massive pile of debris in the Lafitte Canal by Sewerage & Water Board contractors.

The car, which grabbed the city's attention when it was found last week, was the most eye-popping aspect of a significant blockage in the canal that has been impeding the flow of water from a pumping station that drains Mid-City and other areas hit hard by flooding in recent years.

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Crews have so far removed about 750 tons of junk from the canal, finding a second car's chassis, a truck bed and a sofa among more mundane debris and dirt, S&WB spokeswoman Courtney Barnes said.

The police report does not include any speculation on how the car may have ended up in the canal.

However, it was discovered about 250 feet from an open-air section of the canal along the Lafitte Greenway, raising the possibility it may have floated into the canal when Katrina's floodwaters inundated the city and then been pushed along into the underground culvert.

+18 S&WB pulls old car from Lafitte Canal, says other debris will be excavated in coming days After hours of preparation and a handful of false starts, a crane pulled the smashed and deteriorated remains of a Mazda 626 from an undergrou…

The NOPD was called in to look at the car to determine whether there were any signs of foul play.

The car was "in deplorable condition and appeared to be submerged in water for numerous years. The vehicle's interior did not allow the officer to determine if there had previously been any damage sustained from auto theft," the police report said.

The officer on the scene when the car was removed ran its information through NOPD databases, which could have determined whether it was stolen, but came up empty. Another officer then ran the car's vehicle identification number through a different database, and found information on the insurance claim.

The owner's name, the car's last known location and other information were redacted from the report because of a federal law that prevents some information about a vehicle's registration from being released.

Even before the police report was complete, S&WB officials had speculated the car could have been in the canal for more than a decade. But knowing that it went in during Katrina fuels new questions about how little maintenance or inspection was done following the storm.

S&WB Executive Director Ghassan Korban took office only a year ago, and much of his tenure has been focused on dealing with the parts of the utility's infrastructure that were known to be broken, Barnes said.

The agency is now pivoting toward taking a closer look at its underground canals and pipes, including both the Lafitte Canal and the culverts that drain the Central Business District.

"Now we’re looking at the infrastructure we can’t always put our eyes on, and that’s what you saw with the Lafitte Canal," Barnes said.