Leonard Fournette Pledges $100,000 To NOLA Hurricane Ida Relief

By Jason Hall

August 31, 2021

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Training Camp
Photo: Getty Images

Former LSU standout and New Orleans native Leonard Fournette made a major pledge to relief efforts for his hometown in the wake of Hurricane Ida.

"I’m putting up my own 100k for my city everything and anything helps let’s keep it going…… luv my city," Fournette tweeted Tuesday (August 31) morning.

On Monday (August 30), the Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back revealed his plan to support several organizations in their relief efforts "to provide my beloved city and its families, children and individuals with basic necessities" following the devastation brought on by the storm.

The organizations include Cajun Navy Relief and Rescue, Second Harvest Food Bank, All Hands and Hearts, the St. Bernard Project and Direct Relief.

"It’s time to step up," Fournette tweeted on Monday. "The New Orleans community is being hit hard by Hurricane Ida and in need of the world’s support."

Fournette has shared his experiences living through Hurricane Katrina throughout his collegiate and NFL careers.

"The hurricane was coming. New Orleans always had hurricanes, but no one took them serious," Fournette told WBRZ in Baton Rouge on the 10-year anniversary of the storm via KTBS. "We thought Hurricane Katrina wasn't going to be as serious as it was. We went to New Orleans to pick up my grandmother and some cousins and we were going to go to Atlanta. There was too much traffic, we waited too long. so we got a hotel on Canal street. I can't remember the name of the hotel because they took it down. We were in there and the hotel was catching on fire, people were killing each other in there. The water was rising so we had to leave. We were picking up our grandparents, carrying them through water. We slept on the bridge for four days and five nights, just surviving, seeing dead bodies on the water floating around or just staying on the bridge. People were dying on the bridge," said Fournette.

Hurricane Ida initially made landfall near Port Fourchon Sunday (August 29) afternoon as a Category 4 hurricane before being downgraded to a tropical storm early Monday morning (August 30) and later a tropical depression on Monday afternoon as it moved through the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

The National Hurricane Center confirmed Ida reached wind speeds of 150 MPH, tying Hurricane Katrina on the 16th anniversary of the devastating storm, as well as Laura (2020) and the Last Island Hurricane (1856) as the most powerful storms to ever hit the state.

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