About Project Rebuild Plaquemines

Plaquemines Parish is located at the southernmost tip of the state of Louisiana near the mouth of the Mississippi. It is a parish defined by water, in fact, 65% of its 2,429 square miles is water. Because of this, Plaquemines Parish has a tremendous impact to the state and nation through oil and gas development and commercial and recreational fishing. Plaquemines is also home to some of the best citrus in the country from the rich Mississippi Delta soil. The population in 2000 was estimated at 26,757 people. Today’s estimate from the US census is 22,512, with many citizens still displaced from Katrina.

In a study commissioned by Project Rebuild Plaquemines and carried out by LSU’s Center for Energy Studies, the following pre-Katrina facts highlight the importance of the energy industry in Plaquemines Parish.
  • 17 million barrels of oil each year;
  • 10 billion cubic feet of gas each year;
  • Close to 11,000 active state oil and gas wells;
  • Over 750 miles of onshore pipelines;
  • 1,102 active structures in federal offshore waters off the parish coast accounting for roughly half of the total oil production in the Gulf and one-third of the natural gas production;
  • 247,000 barrels per day of refining capacity;
  • 1.3 billion cubic feet per day of gas processing capacity;
  • $100 million per year in severance revenues and over $140 million per year in royalty revenues—for a total of $240 million in total mineral revenues which accounts for roughly 25% of state totals.
  • Over the past decade, the Parish has contributed $2.1 billion in mineral revenues.
  • Direct employment of close to 1,800 people in oil and gas extraction accounting for $80 million in annual wages.
  • A total energy industry estimated to be $1.2 billion per year, accounting for over 8,000 direct, indirect, and induced employment opportunities.
History of Katrina

On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Plaquemines Parish. The center of the eye of the storm passed directly over Empire, LA at 6:10 a.m. CST, severely affecting the south end and east bank of the parish with over 20-foot flood waters that topped the levees and also breeched the back levees at several locations. 90% of the parish flooded.  Homes were completely carried away by the water out to the ocean, cows ended up in trees, and fishing vessels sat on bridges. Fortunately, the majority of the population followed the mandatory evacuation out of the parish, and there were only four deaths and three missing recorded. 

Citizens of the parish alongside thousands of volunteers from all around the country helped to put us on the road to recovery. Today, the parish is open for business from North to South and East to West. Debris has been swept away, our court system is operational, schools are open for students throughout the parish, water and wastewater has been restored and businesses are coming back. Brave citizens and business owners have returned to their land in order to begin again and continue the legacy of Plaquemines Parish—a hardy people that love their families and their land, who will weather any storms to be part of this great parish—Plaquemines!

How Project Rebuild Plaquemines Was Formed

After Katrina, representatives from major businesses in Plaquemines came into the Plaquemines Parish government office with significant donations but with the request that they be placed in the trust of a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Project Rebuild Plaquemines was formed on September 2005 in compliance with that request. The largest donors were given a representative seat in the organization along with community leaders involved in the recovery effort. Once the organization was formed, many other generous donors from around the country also gave support to the organization. The board’s initial goals were the defense of Plaquemines Parish to federal legislators that had never heard of Plaquemines nor understood its value to the nation, simultaneously; the organization began sponsoring community events to reach out to the people of Plaquemines that were just returning home after the storm and to those being housed in large FEMA housing communities. 

Our first playground was built in cooperation with KaBOOM!, Save the Children and Plaquemines Parish Government.  Volunteers for this effort came from the Red Cross, AmeriCorps, U.S. Military, ConocoPhillips, Ashley Johnson – Plaquemines Parish Orange Queen, Leon Duplessis and Sons and other local companies and citizens. 

From our inception we were searching for a project to pursue that would help and be accessible to everyone in the parish.  The playground effort in Diamond led us to our major project – the Parks Project. The Parks Project consists of our partnering with Plaquemines Parish Government to rebuild and improve parks on parish land in order to provide recreation and relaxation for all age groups to lighten the emotional burden carried by so many in this lengthy recovery process (see the Projects link for more information on The Parks Project).