By ROBIN FITZGERALD
Biloxi Sun-Herald
Two days after Hurricane Katrina, Attorney General Jim Hood met with a ragtag-looking group of Hancock County deputies.
They were sweaty and muddy. Some wore shorts and tank tops. None had rested since before the storm. Hood asked those who lost their homes to raise their hands. Nearly all did. The hurricane displaced 28 of the agency’s 30 officers.
Hood said he witnessed similar dedication and devastation across Harrison and Jackson counties and pledged to do something to help first-responders recover from their personal losses.
Hood made good on his pledge Wednesday. He introduced Coast law enforcement and fire officials to attorneys from three out-of-state law firms that have donated a combined $90,000 to the Law Enforcement and Firefighters Katrina Relief Fund for Mississippi Coast officers.
“This goes toward what I hope will be $1 million raised to help you,” Hood said at the gathering in a damaged flight hangar on Hewes Avenue.
About 275 officers and firefighters in the three counties lost their homes in Katrina, according to Hood.
Checks for the $90,000 will be handed over tonight during the “Back the Badge” telethon airing at 8 p.m. on Mississippi Public Broadcasting. Money pledged in the two-hour program goes to the relief fund.
“We’re not asking people from the Coast to donate,” said Hood, challenging other counties to each pledge $10,000.
Former State Treasurer Marshall Bennett, now an attorney with Wolf Popper of New York City, called the public safety workers “true heroes. We want to help them get their lives back to normal.”
His firm is donating $50,000.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am of you,” Bennett told them.
The commitment to duty in the face of personal loss is inspirational, said Katie Ryan, whose firm, Schiffrin & Barroway near Philadelphia, Pa., is giving $25,000.
The other firm, Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer of Washington, D.C., is giving $15,000.
“It’s not just the people of the Mississippi Gulf Coast that are proud of you,” Mark McNair of Kaplan Fox told the officers. “All Americans are proud of the brave efforts and sacrifices you made.”
The attorneys joined Hood in urging other law firms and corporations to contribute to the relief fund.