Posted on 01/16/2006 8:04:20 PM PST by LdSentinal
Aaron Broussard faced what should have been the greatest trial of his political career in 1982, when a jetliner slammed into Kenner eight days after he was sworn in as mayor and killed every person on board and eight on the ground.
The new mayor earned his chops spearheading the grisly rescue and excoriating airline executives for not moving quickly to clean up the crash site, at one point screaming, with the mangled fuselage of the plane at his back, “Get your damned airplane out of my city!”
Two decades later, the hurricane that dwarfed all other disasters has left the Jefferson Parish president chastened. Once a hero who faced down a plane crash, Broussard, 57, has become the whipping boy whom voters in some circles blame for the disastrous flood that tore through neighborhoods normally high and dry.
Two constituents came to a public meeting in November wearing screen-printed shirts that showed his face on the body of a donkey. Others posted signs that lampooned Broussard with the phrase “lying, crying, time for resigning.” A few are circulating a petition to recall him from office.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
He is definitely a heel that deserves wounding, but LA pols have nine lives.
Hero?? How does one 'face down' a plane crash?
"That one decision unfolded Aug. 28, the day before Katrina struck, when Broussard, following a “doomsday plan” drafted years earlier, evacuated drainage pump operators from their stations to a shelter 110 miles away in Washington Parish. They did not return for 24 hours.
Residents blame the idle pumps for the floods that devastated parts of Jefferson, and they have come to see human error, rather than nature’s callousness, as the source of all their problems.
"Yet Broussard made one more risky calculation. When voters lashed out at his decision, he defended it instead of apologizing. Residents wanted him to revise the doomsday plan, but Broussard said he would evacuate again rather than leave the pump operators at risk of death at their stations."
Nasty guy!
LOL.
9 July 1982; Pan Am 727-200, flight 759, windshear.
I remember that day. I was at UNO and you could see the storm building up in the direction Kenner was in, and I called my dad to ask if he would give me a ride home, which he didn't want to do, but he did anyway. About the time we got home, the plane had crashed.
That storm was why the airport, even though not one of the largest, got doppler radar early in its deployment...
Well, that explains a lot.
If you would like on or off the Louisiana Ping list please FReepmail me and your name will be added or taken off of the list.
The article does not mention the subpoena he has received. He is a nasty man.
Broussard may be victim of Katrina
------Victim of his own stupidity is more like it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
