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Survival stories

Houston Chronicle:

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Nita LaGarde had weathered big hurricanes before, and the 89-year-old Louisiana native saw no reason she couldn't ride out this one. She had broken her hip last year, but she still wasn't all that worried. Her 20-year neighbor and devoted friend, Earnestine Dangerfield, would be there for her.

As the storm's fury bore down on New Orleans and their Ninth Ward-area duplex Aug. 29, Dangerfield, 60, eyed the rising waters, knowing she had to do something fast. She also had her 5-year-old granddaughter, Tanisha Belvin, to worry about, and another neighbor's two-story house seemed the safest refuge. Friends helped carry LaGarde through neck-deep water.

Fourteen people had found shelter there, and the rising waters soon forced them to flee to the attic. As the water continued to climb, Dangerfield and others spotted some dry rot in the ceiling and punched a hole. They climbed onto the roof.

The wind was still blowing, though, and Dangerfield worried that she, LaGarde and Tanisha would get separated. She found an orange extension cord in the attic and lashed LaGarde to her back and her granddaughter to her front. They held each other and waited for about two hours. LaGarde kept thanking God for her guardian angel.

"If it wasn't for her," she kept thinking, "I would have been dead."

Neighbors in a canoe found them, took them to a bridge not far away and left them with others they knew from their neighborhood. They stayed there for two days and two nights, sleeping on the concrete, eating what food could be found in abandoned stores, just waiting.

The helicopter that finally came landed at the other end of the long bridge. Dangerfield placed LaGarde into an ice chest and dragged her across the bridge. The helicopter flew them to Interstate 10, where again they waited.

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A Red Cross volunteer at the Astrodome gave a framed copy of the photograph to Dangerfield, who is now staying in a northwest Houston motel with her granddaughter and LaGarde. Studying the picture, Dangerfield said her granddaughter had wanted to stick close to the elderly woman.

"She is right there walking with her Mama Nita, and she wouldn't let her go either," said Dangerfield, who was not in the picture.

There is much more including the stories of other survivors.