Tag: Jefferson Parish “Doomsday Plan”

Doomsday for the former Goatherder in Chief?

Former Goatherder in Chief Aaron Broussard
Former Goatherder in Chief Aaron Broussard / Image via the Times Picayune / NOLA Media Group

Judge declines to toss out Katrina flooding lawsuit against Aaron Broussard and Jefferson Parish ~ Paul Purpura

Peytavin noted there were too many questions concerning Broussard’s credibility to make the pretrial judgments. The judge twice noted in his three rulings that Broussard has given only one deposition.

Something tells me Darleen Jacobs’ people will not be the only ones making the trip to the Federal Pen in Butner North Carolina to depose the former Goatherder in Chief. If I may be so bold to suggest a full fleshing out of this evacuation to Mount Hermon Louisiana nonsense because that is exactly what Broussard and his doomsday plan are: complete nonsense.

My own considered opinion is Broussard intentionally flooded the Parish via abandonment of the pumps so he and his cronies could partake in some disaster crony capitalism that resulted from the flooding. At least that is what a preponderance of the evidence tells me. I’m proud Slabbed contributed to the knowledge base that is the Broussard Flood of 2005. Speaking of that knowledge base, these three archival posts from Nowdy are must reads on this topic: Continue reading “Doomsday for the former Goatherder in Chief?”

So, was it a “Doomsday Plan” or a plan for doomsday? SLABBED reports, you decide!

Intake side, pumping station at the lake, the day after Katrina -water flowing wrong way with pumps off and backflow valves not closed. (theplacewithnoname.com)

The pumping stations themselves are huge, sturdy, blockhouse-type buildings. None sustained any major damage from the winds. In fact, I received some reports that area policemen, during the height of the hurricane, actually sought refuge inside a pumping station, recognizing it as the safest place around. Sure enough, they emerged completely unscathed, as was the expensive – but completely idle – pumping station (What Aaron Broussard Didn’t Tell Us)

As it turned out, there was a lot Aaron Broussard didn’t tell – and what he did tell often conflicted with what Jefferson Parish Emergency Management Director Walter Maestri told plaintiffs’ lawyers in a deposition taken for the “pump flood” case:

“Maestri said he wrote two versions of the Doomsday Plan: one in 1998, during Parish President Tim Coulon’s administration when Broussard was council chairman, and another in March 2005, a revision requested by Broussard through Tim Whitmer, his top aide who supervises department directors.

On one hand, I understand my suggestion of Hell waiting for high water was, as one reader wrote in an email, “a leap for even this avid conspiracy junkie to wrap around”. On the other, it’s a “leap” for me to think the guys were just kicking ideas around and decided the Doomsday Plan needed a revision – one that would change “the earlier version of the plan” and evacuate pump operators to distant Washington Parish rather than shelter “essential public workers at Louis Armstrong International Airport”. Continue reading “So, was it a “Doomsday Plan” or a plan for doomsday? SLABBED reports, you decide!”

Hell waiting for high water – the devil in the details of the flooding of Jefferson Parish

Discussions of the legal and technical aspects of the flooding of Jefferson Parish following Hurricane Katrina are best left to legal scholars and expert engineers. I am neither and a post on those aspects is a subject for another day. For lack of a better word, I’m a behaviorist – and it is from that perspective this post examines the event and those that followed.

Among the most basic of human needs are a sense of belonging and acceptance. If and how those needs are met is determined in large part by our environment; and, in some fashion, we’ve all learned that we will be more readily accepted if “when in Rome” we “do as the Romans do”.

Although half-a-world away, shortly after Hurricane Katrina, London’s Telegraph described the “Rome” that is home to Jefferson Parish:

Congressman Billy Tauzin once said of his state: “One half of Louisiana is under water and the other half is under indictment.” Last week, four fifths of New Orleans was under water and the other four fifths should be under indictment – which is the kind of arithmetic the state’s deeply entrenched kleptocrat political culture will have no trouble making add up.

It was in the context of this “kleptocratic” environment that some did their arithmetic before the storm; figured the flooding of Jefferson Parish would result in a massive money-making opportunity; and decided too much was at stake to rely on nature alone.

One early estimate of loss from the resulting flooding of the Parish was $3-5 billion.  However, we’re only beginning to understand how much money there was to be made; but, more importantly, we’re also beginning to understand how.

Attached to the roots of the “deeply entrenched kleptocrat political culture”  is the rather charming custom of lagniappe.  In its bastardized form “give me something for lagniappe” becomes a kickback to the “in crowd”. Continue reading “Hell waiting for high water – the devil in the details of the flooding of Jefferson Parish”