'Guardian angels' fix flooded home

Dee Muenster had too many people to thank Saturday as she sat in her Collier home for the first time since it was inundated Sept. 17 by almost of 7 feet of water caused by remnants of Hurricane Ivan.

"Anybody that helped us get back in here, they're a guardian angel," she said. "Some people don't believe in guardian angels. I do."

The angels -- cousins, charities, a Rotary club, employees of an accounting firm and a group of fraternity brothers from Duquesne University -- pitched in and helped rebuild the two-story home on Noblestown Road that has been in the family since the 1800s.

Dee, 54, and her husband, Ken, 64, thanked all those yesterday who helped clean and then repair their home.

"I didn't think it would take four months to move back in here," said Dee Muenster, sitting on a couch donated by a local Rotary club. "Four months is a long time to spend in a motel."

The Muensters, along with their 33-year-old daughter, Sheila, and their three cats --Johann, Noah and Angel -- had been staying in an extended-stay motel that features a kitchen.

They could hardly comprehend the damage caused to their home, when Robinson Run, a Chartiers Creek tributary, flooded their low-lying neighborhood. Many of their neighbors have left because their homes were condemned, Ken Muenster said. One neighbor sold her house.

After the floodwater receded, a cousin of Ken's helped clean out the mud and haul ruined belongings to a trash bin.

Then more help came from an unexpected source. A cousin of Dee's, who works at the Downtown accounting firm KPMG LLP, told her co-workers about the Muensters, whose home was not covered by flood insurance. Two of them, Helen Clark and Diana Rudoy, decided to visit the house.

"We were really depressed when we came back from their house," said Rudoy. "We were sitting there, and I said, 'I think I'm going to commit to this, I think I'm going to do it,' and Helen said she would, too."

Rudoy and Clark got co-workers at the 140-employee office to help. Employees donated money, pots and pans, toasters and bathroom rugs. They got charities and local businesses to help in the rebuilding efforts.

Clark organized the office fund raising, while Rudoy met with carpenters, electricians and plumbers, sometimes in the middle of the day.

"If we didn't have the encouragement and support of KPMG, we wouldn't be able to do what we were doing," Rudoy said.

In all, $35,000 was raised to redo the house.

Even up to Friday night, carpet installers, electricians and movers were still working in the house. Rudoy's husband, Ken, helped install the bathroom.

Yesterday, the Muensters moved back into the refurbished home, sitting on donated furniture and reflecting on all that had been done for them.

"It's beautiful," said Dee Muenster, who needs extra oxygen because of a lung condition. "It's going to give us a new life."