Former Saints quarterback works for tornado victims

By the time former New Orleans Saints quarterback John Fourcade heads to Convent next week, he expects to have at least a 35-foot trailer full of supplies for tornado victims.

He started collecting those supplies Friday at the Harrison County Sheriff's Office.

With just one day's notice, a dozen deputies brought clothing and other necessities.

What does that say about the department?

"That with three days' notice we could have brought a lot more," Sheriff Troy Peterson said.

Some members of the sheriff's office recalled receiving assistance themselves after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Others went to help at some of the same recent disasters as Fourcade.

Fourcade said it was partially the memory of Katrina that prompted him to start the program four years ago, though his own home wasn't damaged.

In 2013, a tornado struck Moore, Okla., killing 24 people and devastating the town. At the time, he was working with Barry Switzer, who spent 16 years as head football coach at the University of Oklahoma, just 10 miles up the road.

He took supplies to Oklahoma, then to Waco after an explosion there and then last year to Tupelo.

He works with Steve Daigle, the president of Punctual Abstract, who allows Fourcade to use his warehouse and trailers.

The tornadoes that hit the Gulf region almost two weeks ago hit Convent, in southern Louisiana, particularly hard. Two people were killed and 31 taken to hospitals, officials said. An RV park was essentially destroyed.

So when Fourcade heads there he'll be hauling a donated two-bedroom, two-bathroom mobile home.

He'll also have clothes and "hurricane bags" donated by the Harrison County Sheriff's Office. Some of the bags had been donated 10 years ago after Katrina.

"We were here," Peterson said. "We didn't lose anything but I remember how much was given to us.

"And we've been giving back since, and we'll continue to give back."

This story was originally published March 4, 2016 at 8:35 PM with the headline "Former Saints quarterback works for tornado victims ."