A truckload of home repair and improvement supplies left for thecoast Wednesday to help law enforcement officials impacted byHurricane Katrina.

“This is for police and emergency services personnel who havebeen working through all this,” Copiah County Sheriff Harold Jonessaid.

Jones said he set up the Copiah County Sheriff’s Katrina ReliefFund to accept donations.

“People have generously contributed over $9,000 to the fund,”Jones said.

Jones said he has already made several trips to the coast todeliver various items. Wednesday’s shipment, which included lumber,felt, roof vents and other items, was destined for HarrisonCounty.

The supplies are intended to ease the stress being felt by lawenforcement workers who continue on the job despite sustainingextensive home damage themselves.

“Some of them lost everything,” Jones said.

The sheriff mentioned longtime friend Bobby Underwood, who isnow chief deputy in Hancock County. Jones and Underwood workedtogether in the area Mississippi Highway Patrol district for morethan 20 years.

During a recent cell telephone conversation, Underwood wasstanding on the slab where his home once stood, Jones said.

“He said, ‘I can turn around 360 degrees and see nothing. I losteverything I got,'” Jones said.

Jones said he purchased as many as items possible in CopiahCounty and bought bulk items from Home Depot in Brookhaven. Thesheriff said Home Depot supplied the driver and a truck for thetrip, which was expected to completed in one day.