When Auxiliarist Bruce Dyleski (FC Flotilla 33) and his wife Joy returned to their home in Waveland, Mississippi on Wednesday, September 7, they found little that resembled their former life. Their cozy home and the neighborhood around it were flattened by Hurricane Katrina. As Bruce put it, “The sea came in and washed Waveland away.”

“The hurricane took our home away and with it our stuff. We did take the important things, at least they seemed important, photos, scrap books, Joy's quilts and a few other mementos of our lives, but the rest is a scattered rubble pile 3 houses up the block.”

A journal entry by Bruce in late June 2002 described the life that had been lost.

“LATE JUNE 2002: I think our arrival at Waveland to be a bit magical. The Aiken Rd house is funky, a very nice funky All wood floors, beamed ceiling, a big screened front porch. The street is one car wide set among live oaks. The beach, The Gulf of Mexico is only one long block away. Turning off Beach Blvd Aiken rd winds through cathedral oaks hung with moss. The house is in trees with a giant oak next door and next door to that...it is that big! So our arrival is grand. … Joy is already putting up quilts and pictures on the walls. I feel like we are on vacation, this being the type of place people come over to rent for a week at the beach. We call it home now. … It is our dream starting to materialize and I didn't believe it would ever be this nice.”

As Bruce surveyed the rubble before him, memories of his time in Waveland came in waves of a different kind. Memories and a perspective on life forever changed.

He writes to me, one privileged to be his friend: “So my words are this, we are a most fortunate society and any of this good fortune can be taken away at any time. Appreciate what you have, focus on what is real and lasting, live your life today as best you can. The week before the storm came, I sat every morning in the chair and sipped my coffee and it ran thru my mind just how rich my life had been on Aiken Road though we had little money, few possessions and nothing of real value except our families and the love Joy and I had shared through so much. It is so strange now that those thoughts came to me every day that week and that journal entry of July3, the last Aiken Road journal were so prophetic.”

Surveying the rubble, Bruce and Joy make a find. “The first thing I found of ours was a large decorative plate. It had been atop a cabinet above our stove leaning against the wall How it landed safely in the front yard I cannot know. The roof of the house was across the street probably blown off before the wave ever got there. But the plate how it did made it?”
Little things mean a lot when you have lost virtually everything.

To Bruce’s side, other Auxiliarists came and stood. Many of them had suffered losses themselves, but they were there for their fellow Auxiliarists. Fellow Flotilla member Al Benjamin, who had evacuated to another state offered Bruce and Joy his home (which had survived the storm) while they surveyed the damage in Waveland and tried to salvage what they could of their possessions. Others offered needed emotional support.
In the best traditions of the Auxiliary, Bruce and Joy were surrounded by a caring Auxiliary family.

Operation Life Ring Kicks In!
In the aftermath of Katrina, the Coast Guard Auxiliary launched Operation Life Ring, and for people like Bruce and Joy, the Life Ring got thrown at just the right time.
Commodore Joe Taylor was tasked with the coordination of Life Ring Efforts in the ravaged area, and with the assistance of Coast Guard Mutual Assistance staff, met with Auxiliarists at Coast Guard stations in Diamondhead, MS, Pascagoula, MS and Gulfport, LA.
Bruce and Joy and, as of 2 October, approximately two dozen other Auxiliary families like them were given no-interest Coast Guard Mutual Assistance loans of up to $5,000.00 per family. No payment at all is expected for six months.
According to COMO Taylor, this was the first time this many Auxiliarists have needed mutual assistance.
While some had other insurance (and others had none), there was a real need for immediate funds that other insurance was not providing. Said Taylor, “Many have insurance, but that takes time.” The loans, Taylor said, would give them “capital to operate on in the interim.”
Loans were given right on the spot, and Dyleski was amazed at the speed of the loan (five minutes!) and the lack of “red tape.”
In the typical unselfish spirit of the Auxiliary, more than one Auxiliarist told Commodore Taylor they would not take a Mutual Assistance loan if it deprived another of a loan.
These loans will not meet all needs, according to Commodore Taylor. Some families are so devastated they will need pure grants, where no repayment is expected.
Here, Taylor says, is where the donations to Operation Life Ring will come in. As the Auxiliary Association receives donations to Operation Life Ring, a fund will be built up from which individual need-based grants can be made. This will be particularly needed by members of Flotillas 48, 35, 41 and 33, which Taylor says were “hammered” by the storm.
The need for these donations is real and immediate, said the Commodore.

Moving Ahead
For Bruce and Joy Dyleski and countless others like them, the process of rebuilding their lives has begun. With all of their belongings in the back of their truck, this special couple left Mississippi for the last time (in all likelihood) and joined relatives in Texas. Also to be there for them in Texas are a bunch of caring Auxiliarists, ready to be their new Auxiliary family.
Moving ahead for others may be more difficult, but there will be the common thread of a caring Auxiliary family.
Through Operation Life Ring, all of us can be an active part of that caring family.