JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — Twenty years ago, on August 29, 2005, delivered a stark "wake-up call" to the Greater New Orleans area.

While not as devastating as the flooding in New Orleans, neighboring Jefferson Parish still saw parts of its landscape submerged, leaving tens of thousands of residents homeless.

In the two decades since, the parish has put its emergency response plan under a microscope, completely overhauling its approach to disaster preparedness and recovery.

At the center of this transformation is Joseph Valiente, who now serves as Jefferson Parish's Director of Emergency Management. But on that fateful day in 2005, he was an NOPD commander with a vastly different role.

"I was assigned to the traffic division. I was a commander of special events," he recalls.

Valiente was

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