Rebuilding After Floyd Continues, Even During the Holidays

Barbara Pittman's home was destroyed after Hurricane Floyd. While many were celebrating Christmas Saturday, she was cleaning up her home.

Even in the midst of the cleanup, however, she received an incredible gift.

A group of Jehovah's Witness volunteers helped Pittman and her daughter, who lives next door, get back into their homes.

"Today, to me, is a day showing what love and friendship is all about because a lot of these brothers and sisters could be doing something else," Pittman said.

Pittman is a Jehovah's Witness and members of that faith traditionally do not observe Christmas Day.

"They came just by a phone call," said volunteer Kenneth Williams, "some of them from the end of the state from the North Carolina-Tennessee border. It wasn't hard at all."

For the past three months the volunteers have worked on more than 100 homes in the Princeville and Tarboro area. With their help, many families will be able to move back home in just a few weeks.

Pittman knows cleaning flood-damaged homes is not the way people traditionally spend Christmas Day, but she says she is very grateful.