Some JP employees did stay for storm says Broussard

While Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard said he ordered pump operators out of harm’s way as Katrina approached – a decision that some residents have roundly criticized – a small group of employees at the parish’s water treatment plant rode out the storm.

Broussard said that all employees were evacuated save for a handful, including himself, who rode out the storm in the parish.

He said he didn’t know that the water treatment employees had stayed and he said he’s angry about that.

“I didn't know that until today,” he said. “They risked their lives, they're lucky they're alive and if I had to bury somebody, then I would have fired whoever put those people in their station.”

Poor Aaron has lots of people in his face these days....

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/112918301274430.xml

Engaging in the first public battle in what had been a mostly composed government reaction to Hurricane Katrina, Jefferson Parish Councilman-at-large John Young and Parish President Aaron Broussard traded verbal blows Wednesday over the decision to evacuate local pump operators to Washington Parish and to return them only after thousands of homes had flooded.

Young, who said he bore no responsibility for evacuating pump personnel Aug. 28, called for a policy change that would keep those workers inside Jefferson Parish during powerful hurricanes rather than shipping them 110 miles north to Mount Hermon, where some 200 operators rode out Katrina. They returned Aug. 29 about 7 p.m. -- about nine hours after the storm made landfall -- to find many neighborhoods inundated.

"Whatever we do in the future, I think it is imperative that we have the pump operators remain in Jefferson Parish," Young said, suggesting the workers be assigned to West Jefferson Medical Center and East Jefferson General Hospital, where thousands of patients and medical staff -- along with Broussard, Young and Councilman Byron Lee -- weathered Katrina.

Broussard, at times roaring his response, derided Young's recommendation as a "death sentence" for pump workers forced to stay in Jefferson, where no building is certified to withstand a Category 4 or 5 storm, including the public hospitals. He further called Young's comments at Wednesday's council meeting a "sanctimoniously hypocritical" maneuver to gain political favor that contrasted with Young's silence Aug. 28 as Broussard decided to evacuate pump station staff.

"At no time do I remember you telling me that we should not send the pump operators away," Boussard said. "I think you're politically perfect. . . . However, in an emergency situation, you were invisible.

"It will be a rainy day in hell . . . before I tell a pump operator that they will stay in any structure . . . during a Category 4 or 5 storm," Broussard said. "You say you're sensitive to life. I say you're full of s- - -."

-snip-

Broussard said Wednesday that in the hours leading up to Katrina, he relied on Young to provide status reports on levees and pump stations in East Jefferson. Broussard said he assumed that responsibility himself on the West Bank. Young, however, disputed the point and said Wednesday was the first time Broussard had buttonholed him to that task.

"You know very well that you did not assign me to the pump stations during this hurricane," Young said.

"You are a liar, sir," Broussard replied.

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