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.

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

Katrina + 4: it seems like just yesterday, but it seems like forever ago

It has been 4 years since Katrina. I could write for hours on the impact it has had. Clearly it was a catastrophic storm. It leveled houses, killed thousands, and totally reshaped lives, organizations, and governmental agencies.

And while it was horrible, it also forged millions of new friendships and made positive changes for many as well. Personally, without Katrina, I have an almost impossible time imagining BonaResponds.

I toyed with the idea of trying to reflect on how Katrina changed things into a pre-Katrina/Post Katrina world. But I better get to work on other things. But I do want to provide some links to what others have been saying about the anniversary and provide a link to show how I was reporting things on RandomTopics2 back immediately after the storm as BonaResponds was just getting started.

On the 4th year anniversary:

A heartwarming story from NOLA:
Gentilly woman's Katrina anniversary picture-taking tour offers satisfaction, motivation - NOLA.com:

"'Progress,' Royal said of the street's transformation. 'You can't say it's not progress.'

Proof of the progress can be found in the pictures she has taken of Gentilly landmarks on Aug. 29 each of the last three years."

And from the editorial in Biloxi's SunHerald:

"Four years ago today the Coast faced the daunting task of dealing with the consequences of a deadly and devastating hurricane.

How daunting a task?

Estimates vary, but the number of housing units significantly damaged or destroyed by Katrina totaled at least 75,000....we’ve come a remarkably long way in our recovery and rebuilding efforts. From tens of thousands in need of permanent shelter to just a few hundred in only four years.

That’s not perfect.

But it is miraculous."

From more the coverage in Biloxi's Sun Hearld:

"Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway on the Town Green told a group at 8 a.m. that four years ago at that place and time, they would have been in water way over their heads. Pass Christian dedicated a new fire station to a longtime volunteer firefighter who died in his home during Katrina and the Bay-Waveland area held a memorial service at the beach."

From the NY Daily News:

"Four years later, New Orleans has taken impressive steps toward recovery. Following a drastic reduction in population, the number of households in the city now stands at 77% of its pre-hurricane total.

While blight remains a problem - 31% of New Orleans' residential housing stock remains unoccupied - the city issued 1,420 permits for new construction in May this year, nearly double the number issued in the same month last year.

That's some of the good news. The bad news is that the city's system of protective levees and canals remains inadequate.

My friend David Campbell the founder of HODR. Writing in his "look-back" to commemorate the 4th anniversary, thanks the volunteers without whom this recovery would not have been possible perfectly concludes:

"To everyone affected by Katrina we are always thinking of you and wishing you the best, today especially. And to everyone who came to help, thank you. Wherever you are now, know that your day, week, month or more volunteering made a difference in someone’s life."

Four years. It seems like it was just yesterday, but it seems like it was forever too.

PS a little note to any Gulf Coast resident who maybe reading this. Your recovery has been amazing. Keep up the good work!