Duty

I have bumped this post up. It was orginally posted on September 17. Thanks to John at Wuzzadem for posting and linking to it.

After Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the firemen and policemen of the cities were out there. The firemen in Gulfport cleared Dedeaux Road, a main thoroughfare in Gulfport even before the winds had stopped blowing, allowing me and others to get to our homes and insuring the safety of citizens.

They and policemen were also involved in rescuing people, again before the winds had subsided. Many of the firestations and police buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged. Many of the homes of the policemen and firemen were destroyed or heavily damaged. Did they go on vacation to Las Vegas? No, they stayed and worked around the clock to insure the safety of the citizens up and down the coastal cities.

They are still working around the clock along with help from police departments from Indiana, Missouri, Florida, and many others. These men and women have shown what duty means and still have not had a chance to attend to the business of looking after their homes.

The city of Gulfport has set up a fund to help those firemen and police officers whose homes were destroyed or heavily damaged.

The Gulfport Emergency Response Benefit Fund is set up for financial relief of the city of Gulfport police officers, firefighters and departmental employees who have suffered partial and full loss of homes and property due to Hurricane Katrina.

Several officers, firefighters, city workers and support personnel lost their homes, vehicles and personal belongings in the storm.

Many have been working extremely long hours to serve citizens of their communities.

All of the funds will be directed toward the effort to support and assist them.

Donations can be made at any Whitney National Bank between Tampa, Fla., and Houston, Texas, or you can wire 065000171, a PayPal-friendly Internet site at www.gulfportpd.com. Contributions can also be mailed to 2186 Collins Blvd., Gulfport, MS 39507.

Details: 518-0337, Lt. Leonard Papania; 518-0134, Det. Darrin Corrie or 539-0402, Det. Billy Stage.Sun Herald

As soon as I am my feet, I will be contributing to this fund. If you can help out please do so. These men and women did not resign, did not turn their backs on looters, and did not go on vacation. They did their duty and how I wish I could help them!!

Mark from Knocking on the Golden Door provided this great link in a comment he left. The link describes some of the antics of the New Orleans police which I alluded to in this post but did not name names.