Diane from Pass Christian MS on ABC news

http://abcnews.go.com/US/katrina-survivor-describes-clinging-trees-hours-husband-swept/story?id=32616231

Posted on FB first, but the videos are so moving, we will repost here:

As we all look back ten years at Hurricane Katrina, I highly encourage you to watch these videos on the storm. They feature my friend Diane Pontius Brugger and her heroic story. Her husband was killed, her business and home destroyed. She argues she just hung on to a tree but that took great courage. Incredible courage.

A lesser person would have given up. Try to imagine it: you are in a tree, in the dark, water all around you, the Gulf of Mexico now surrounding what only minutes before had been your life. Your husband dead, your life in shambles. But she hung on. And not only then but over the years following.

We had the great fortune of meeting her on a trip down to work with Randy's Rangers in Pass Christian. We were cutting trees (I think for her neighbor first?) when she offered us something to drink and I think cookies. She was (and is) just as nice a person as I had ever met (for those who have been on other trips imagine Georgia from Tuscaloosa or Beverly Twitty from Olean and you have an idea of how kind and loving a person we are talking about).

When she found out we were staying in large tents, she offered her own rooms and shower/bath. We had a late night bon fire on her grounds with some of the branches we had cut earlier. We played with her dogs--especially her large and very playful dog (I think named Ivan). And remember, she didn't know us.

She did rebuild and now runs a B&B in Pass Christian. In this video she is interviewed by Robin Roberts and in the second video she is interviewed by a local reporter at Thursday's screening of the ABC video that aired last night.
http://abcnews.go.com/…/katrina-survivor-describes-c…/story…

http://minotareanews.rrvnews.com/…/48625_watch-katrina-surv…

And a personal note to Diane, thank you. Your kindness and courage in the aftermath of the storm was a high point of our many trips to the Gulf. I remember volunteers at our then nightly all-hands meetings (Reflections) telling and retelling stories of your generosity and how much it meant for them.

In the video you humbly say you are not a hero as all you did was hang on to two trees. I would argue you are a hero and rolemodel (‪#‎rolemodelhero‬) not only for mustering the courage to hang on when letting go would have been so easy, but also for your life since.

You have shown us all, that life does go on and that kindness and a good attitude can overcome much. You have done this in a manner that also reminds us to honor and never forget what we have lost, but to not let those losses drag us down as well.

Thank you Diane, your example tells a story we all need to know.

Related articles

• Watch: For Robin Roberts, Hurricane Katrina's Impact Hits Home: Part 6
• Storm surge gutted my home

Shrimp, Smores, and Card Games

Shrimp, bonfires, and card games

I hate being predictable. So rather than tell you about how hard people worked today. How we laid tiles, hung sheet rock, and mudded ceilings. How we cleaned debris, refurbished homes, and installed insulation, I will tell you about something else. I will tell you about the fun we had today. To listen to a volunteer crew at almost any site one would think the people hated each other. It is almost constant bickering about who made a mistake or who is slow. Or who ate the last sandwich. Or picked the wrong radio station. But it is all good natured ribbing. If the truth be known, it is really fun and the people really do like each other. It is true from the days after the Hurricane to after the storm in Buffalo, to after the recent tornado in Enterprise.

But that is in the field. What about afterwards?

Much volunteer work is hard and often stressful, so being able to burn off steam is important. Take today’s BonaResponds’ events for instance. After work, the two teams from Pass Christian (Bible Fellowship and Randy’s) got together for what is rapidly becoming a tradition: the Shrimp Boil at Kimball’s. It was again a huge success as we got to enjoy good company, catch up with what is going on at the other site all while getting to partake in local cuisine while also helping the local economy.

After that the teams got together for a bonfire at Randy’s camp where we toasted marshmallows and again talked about how much work was getting done and how much everyone liked being here.

And then the teams retreated to their respective camps for sleep. But if our site was any indication, the fun did not stop there. Instead, we made pizza and played what very well may be called the second loudest card game in the history of the world while until late into the night (early morning) and all while making plans to arise early to see the sun rise on the Gulf before getting to work.

And to that end, I better get to sleep.

From Anna at Bible Faith Fellowship Church

Anna wrote other interesting article on what has been happening on our trip.

March 6, 2007

Well, today we continued dry-walling and tiling the Neral's house. Most of the guys and Laura worked in the back bedroom putting up sheet rock for the ceiling. I'd like to learn how to do that, but I'm pretty slow at learning these sort of things, so I think I'll wait until I decide I have the patience to do that. I started out putting down tiles today in one of the bathrooms but later moved to stapling the insulation to the rafters in the kitchen.

The day began with a bit of an emergency, as no one could figure out the number for an immediate treatment center. Christina's eye had swollen shut, so it was unlikely she would be doing much work until that was taken care of. As that was being sorted out, the rest of us got down to work at the house.

Carrie and I had to put down the "goop" on part of the cement floor in the living room to make it more level. Gabe and his family have had to build their house after he's done working, and it's new in some areas for them, too. There are only minor flaws with the floor, though; the uneven patches can be fixed with some extra goop smoothed over them. Goop is what we're calling the preset stuff that the tiles stick to. It looks like light gray frosting but smells like paint. Once it dries, we can put on another layer to stick the tiles to in the living room. Putting it on the floor isn't my favorite job, but it's not too difficult and it'll make tiling much easier. We finished that and took a lunch break. Jillian made us fried pork chops, cinnamon cake, brownies, grape Koolaid and venison for lunch. I didn't try the venison but the pork chops were delicious. I better remember to tell my mom to fry them sometime; they taste better than regular old grilled pork chops. The cake and brownies hit the spot as well. We're a bit spoiled with all the food. After that, Sally and I started laying down tiles in one of the bathrooms. It's a lot of fun, but we almost tiled ourselves into a corner. When tiling, it's always good to have an escape route.

Laying down tiles starts to kill your knees as time passes, so I switched over to insulating the ceiling. Melissa and I stood on a table and stuck the insulation sheets into the roof rafters and stapled them. It's a nice change from kneeling on cement for long periods of time, but there are drawbacks to it as well. The main one is the insulation itself. Despite looking like pink cotton candy attached to brown paper, it is in reality fiber glass. And it is extremely itchy if it touches your skin, so you're almost required to wear long pants and shirts. I had a hoodie, jeans, a hat, work gloves and a face mask on to keep the insulation off me. I quickly learned that breathing in the insulation is not a good idea unless you want a tickly feeling in your throat all day. My biggest fear was getting it in my eyes; I didn't want to be the next person in our group with an eye problem. When we finally finished, we were both sweating, but now the kitchen will be ready to be dry-walled tomorrow.

It was a long day and I'm glad Laura grilled chicken. We had quite an enjoyable dinner as a group and more brownies were made. In no way have we suffered this entire trip in terms of meals. I tried to explain how to play rummy to Sally after dinner, but since I don't know all the rules either, it didn't work out very well until other people jumped in and took over.

Jim, Tim and Ray arrived a little later from Alabama. Most of our group decided to hit the hay around 11:30, but I stayed up with Laura for a while near the bonfire she made with the North Carolina people. They're leaving in the morning, so they have the benefit of sleeping in. It turns out they've watched most of the same shows as us growing up and they have many of the same jokes. I guess some culture is universal. Anyway, I wisely decided to not stay up too much later than 12:30, so I'll be heading to bed now. It's been another day of acquiring more useful homemaker skills that my mom will exploit the moment I get back. I hope tomorrow I end up dry-walling.

Anne Dlugosz

A look around at all the camps-Randy's Rangers

We will try something a bit different today, each site submitted their own reports on who the work is going. We'll start off with A report from Randy's by Emily:

Emily – After responding to the disaster in Alabama, I assumed Mississippi would be nearly the same. As an early responder in Alabama, I witnessed the utter devastation and destruction the tornado left behind. Whole trees ripped from the ground, roots included, with green splattered all over the neighborhood decorated Enterprise, Ala. -- the lush scenery was still apparent of what had been.

The community pulled itself together; each neighbor helping the other remove debris or save what was left from a house that was once a home. Neighbors drove around continuously all day, offering food and water to workers and volunteers. Southern hospitality certainly shone through the darkness of the disaster.

The scene is quite different in Pass Christian, Miss. More than a year and a half later, the scene in Mississippi is quite bleak. As I look up and down the street here at Randy’s Rangers, everything simply looks dead. The greenery is far and few – a rare find. Trees are resting anywhere and everywhere, twisted and turned, brittle and unmoved since Katrina winds and water knocked them down. I can see only the naked foundations of houses and nothing else.

Some home owners have moved into trailers, in hopes of rebuilding their homes, which is where we come in. There are no neighbors driving around. It just seems deserted. It’s depressing and I feel for the people who once inhabited these houses, many of which are now up for sale. I wonder who lived here – were they married, did they have kids, did anyone die in the storm, etc.? All that is left are the empty shells of these residents. It seems like the situation is hopeless; how can 20 college kids make a difference? As the days go on, I begin to slowly understand how much we do matter when someone thanks us or emails a school official out of gratitude. It will continue to be a slow process. I only hope that the rest of the nation will realize that a year and a half later, Mississippi still needs help—the disaster is not over, yet and so many people are reliving it everyday when they step outside their trailer door and look out to nothing where their homes once stood.