Benedict G. Rousselle, known as Benny Rousselle (born January 20, 1951), is a

Realtor A real estate agent or real estate broker is a person who represents sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and agen ...

and an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

from

Plaquemines Parish Plaquemines Parish (; French: ''Paroisse de Plaquemine'', Louisiana French: ''Paroisse des Plaquemines'', es, Parroquia de Caquis) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 23,515 at the 2020 census, the parish ...

Greater New Orleans The New Orleans metropolitan area, designated the New Orleans–Metairie metropolitan statistical area by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, or simply Greater New Orleans (french: Grande Nouvelle-Orléans, es, Gran Nueva Orleans), is a me ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. From 1996 to 1999, Rousselle served District 105 in the

Louisiana House of Representatives The Louisiana House of Representatives (french: link=no, Chambre des Représentants de Louisiane) is the lower house in the Louisiana State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. This chamber is composed of 105 repr ...

, which then encompassed

Jefferson Jefferson may refer to: Names * Jefferson (surname) * Jefferson (given name) People * Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third president of the United States * Jefferson (footballer, born 1970), full name Jefferson Tomaz de Souza, Brazilian foo ...

, Plaquemines, and Lafourche parishes. From 1987-1994, he served on the Plaquemines Parish Council. After leaving the state House, Rousselle returned to the Plaquemines Parish government as its elected president from 1999 to 2007. He handily unseated incumbent parish president Clyde Giordano in the 1998 general election. Rousselle graduated from Belle Chasse High School in

Belle Chasse Belle Chasse ( ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, United States, on the west bank of the Mississippi River. Belle Chasse is part of the Greater New Orleans metropolitan area. The population was 10,579 at the 20 ...

in Plaquemines Parish. He obtained a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree from the

University of New Orleans The University of New Orleans (UNO) is a public research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is a member of the University of Louisiana System and the Urban 13 association. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High rese ...

. He has been affiliated with the Plaquemines Parish Council on Aging and the Louisiana Association of Realtors. Rousselle is

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

. Plaquemines Parish is adjacent to the

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

district (also known as Fifteenth Ward) of New Orleans.

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

struck Plaquemines Parish during Rousselle's second term as parish president. Katrina and related

levee A levee (), dike (American English), dyke (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is a structure that is usually soil, earthen and that often runs parallel (geometry), parallel to ...

failures resulted in almost all homes and businesses of Plaquemines Parish being catastrophically flooded. Belle Chasse, the location of the Naval Air Station and the Joint Reserve Base, was spared from flood destruction as it is flanked by the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

on the northern and eastern sides and the Industrial Canal on the west side and naturally sits on high ground. Most had to evacuate permanently from their houses, and many remained for months in

Federal Emergency Management Agency The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...

trailers. Rousselle blamed the national administration for the way it handled the aftermath of Katrina. Other politicians who criticized the way the U.S. government handled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina were

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

Ray Nagin Clarence Raymond Joseph Nagin Jr. (born June 11, 1956) is an American former politician who was the 60th Mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, from 2002 to 2010. A Democrat, Nagin became internationally known in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Ka ...

of New Orleans and parish presidents

Junior Rodriguez Henry Joseph Rodriguez, Jr. (September 27, 1935 – May 3, 2018), known as Junior Rodriguez, was an American politician from St. Bernard Parish in the Greater New Orleans section of the U.S. state of Louisiana. He was of Isleño descent and w ...

from St. Bernard and Aaron Broussard from

. Rousselle was constitutionally ineligible for a third consecutive term as Plaquemines parish president.

Election history

Member of Parish Council, District 2, 1990 Threshold > 50% First Ballot, October 6, 1990 State Representative, 105th Representative District, 1995 Threshold > 50% First Ballot, October 21, 1995 Second Ballot, November 18, 1995 Plaquemines Parish President, 1998 Threshold > 50% First Ballot, October 3, 1998 Plaquemines Parish President, 2002 Threshold > 50% First Ballot, October 5, 2002 Second Ballot, November 5, 2002

References

Sources

ThinkExist.com

Louisiana Secretary of State : https://web.archive.org/web/20060911211304/http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/ Plaquemines Parish: http://www.plaqueminesparish.com/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Rousselle, Benny Democratic Party members of the Louisiana House of Representatives Presidents of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana People from Belle Chasse, Louisiana Politicians from New Orleans 1951 births Living people Catholics from Louisiana