When the residents of Ascension Parish, La., head to the St. Amant fire house on Saturday, the people they will thank for donated goods and supplies will be from Western Pennsylvania, including locally based state police and firefighters from North Braddock and Penn Hills.

Chief James LeBlanc, of the St. Amant Volunteer Fire Department, said his firefighters are holding a open house to distribute canned food, clothing, pots and pans and toiletries to the people of Ascension Parish who are still suffering from the losses they incurred in August from Hurricane Katrina.

Eighteen days after the hurricane hit, three members of the North Braddock Volunteer Fire Department 2 were in St. Amant with their first donated U-Haul truck full of supplies.

The Pennsylvania State Police, working with their teenage cadet corps, also collected an 18-wheeler full of bottled water for the storm survivors in the first week after the hurricane.

Trooper Robin Mungo, the spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh station, said the Salvation Army told her to call Terry Stell, the chief of the North Braddock Volunteer Fire Department 2. Chief Stell already had started collecting supplies for the survivors and was in contact with Chief LeBlanc. Trooper Mungo said Pitt Ohio Express donated not only the truck and fuel, but also paid a driver to get the water to St. Amant.

Pitt Ohio Express also donated its truck for the Penn Hills effort.

The Penn Hills firefighters' effort was organized primarily by Nick Gerstel.

As the storm and those affected slipped from the front pages of the newspapers around the nation, firefighters in North Braddock and Penn Hills and the Pennsylvania State Police kept thinking of and collecting supplies for the people in Louisiana.

"We still ain't recuperated from that mess," Chief LeBlanc said.

An e-mail sent out by the chief said, "The damage is visible in every direction. Mounds of trash, destroyed buildings and abandoned homes are a constant reminder of the devastation to the Gulf Coast and the effort it will take to continue the rebuilding process."

In a telephone interview, Chief LeBlanc said the Pennsylvania State Police sent down so many toys in an 18-wheeler that nearly 300 children had Christmas presents they otherwise would not have received.

In all, four truckloads of supplies have been delivered from Western Pennsylvania to St. Amant, including a pallet and a half of toiletries from the people of North Braddock that went down with the toys. One truckload was from Penn Hills alone, carrying 31 pallets of clothing and toys.

"Those guys up there have been dynamite," Chief LeBlanc said.

Chief Stell organized the effort and was one of three men who made the drive in September. He said the generosity to the people in Louisiana was overwhelming. In less than two weeks the North Braddock firefighters had collected five pallets of food, water, clothing and toiletries. Chief LeBlanc said they also donated more than $5,000 in cash to help the people of the parish.

Now North Braddock's fire department has something just for the firefighters. The borough's three fire companies have merged into two, leaving them with about a dozen sets of extra turnout gear -- the coats, helmets, pants and boots worn by firefighters responding to a blaze. Chief Stell said there are a few air bottles that can be donated, too.

Chief LeBlanc said they can definitely use them.

"They're out of the main part of the news now, but need is still there," Chief Stell said.

Chief LeBlanc said the firefighters and state police in Western Pennsylvania have a special place in the hearts of the people of St. Amant.

"We've adopted them," he said.