Saints keeping camp in West Virginia following devastating floods

If there's any team that can understand the effects of devastating weather, it's the New Orleans Saints. But the franchise that was displaced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 has no plans of moving its training camp from West Virginia despite the devastating floods the area has been hit with in the past week.

Instead, the Saints have vowed to stay and pledged to help victims and families affected by the biggest floods in the state in nearly a century. The franchise has held its training camp at The Greenbriar resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. the past few seasons, and Greenbriar County has suffered the brunt of the damage, including 16 reported deaths there and 24 total statewide.

The team issued a statement from team president Dennis Lauscha and executive vice president/general manager Mickey Loomis:

"On behalf of our entire organization, we wish to extend our thoughts and prayers to all of the West Virginians whose lives have been dramatically affected by the severe flooding the state has recently received.

"Unfortunately, our community is very familiar with the loss of life and property these weather disasters can cause and we are working to assist those affected, where we can.

"We have maintained contact with officials at the Greenbrier and our plans remain to conduct training camp starting on July 27. We will continue to monitor the situation and look for ways that our team/organization can contribute in a positive way while we are there this summer. We will do this based on the direction of the local community and the Greenbrier, so that we are not adding to the burden of this difficult recovery.

"It is evident that help and assistance is greatly needed across the state and in the immediacy we are working with the United Way to offer our assistance. We would encourage those that are interested in providing assistance to visit https://www.unitedwaygreenbrier.org."

The Saints have issued dates and times for camp, which is scheduled to open July 27. The final practice at The Greenbriar is scheduled for Aug. 16.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm