Natural disasters may eventually breed ingenuity and community closeness, but as Lou and Wilma Rizzardi know, disasters can also generate debris — a lot of it.

When Hurricane Katrina hit the couple’s hometown of Pass Christian, Miss., it left 2 million cubic yards of trash and devastation. The total is equivalent to two football fields, end to end, piled 200 feet high, Lou Rizzardi said.

The Rizzardis used such details to help a group of San Carlos eighth-graders understand exactly what happened to the 6,500-person town last fall and why the outpouring of generosity from its adoptive California town means so much.

“This is a boost in our spirit,” Lou Rizzardi told the class at Tierra Linda Middle School in San Carlos.

The class adopted the town as part of its “Pay it Forward” project, collecting beach-themed items for bags the Rizzardis will take back to students in their city.

The Rizzardis spoke with the students for about an hour as part of a whirlwind tour of San Carlos, including a stroll through the Farmer’s Market and a spot on a parade in the weekend’s Hometown Days. After meeting with students — many who offered the couple handshakes and hugs as they left — the couple were off for an aerial tour of the Peninsula.

But while Wilma Rizzardi said they are having a great time visiting, they know there is still a town only now beginning to rebuild from the hurricane. Much of the process, she said, has been eased by the gifts from the city of San Carlos and various groups, like the middle schoolers, within its borders.

The San Carlos Chamber of Commerce had never adopted a town before, said CEO Sheryl Pomerenk. Since doing so, she said, $33,000 in cold, hard cash was collected for the recovery. Many donations came in small increments, like $250 from a group of boys who spent three weeks collecting recycling.

The figure doesn’t count specific collections like $8,000 sent from St. Charles Church to rebuild churches in Mississippi, Pomerenk said.

The chamber’s sponsorship led to its choosing a fellow chamber member to visit from Christian Pass. Wilma Rizzardi heads the Chamber of Commerce while her husband is an alderman, the city’s version of a councilmember. He joked that had he known what was coming, he would have never run for election just prior to the hurricane hitting.

The Rizzardis were luckier than many; three large trees fell on their property but only one hit the house while they weathered the storm at a friend’s apartment in Pensacola, Fla. Three sons, their friends and a few chain saws later and the house was ready to start sheltering those who lost everything.

The last months have seen all classes pushed into one school north of town, families crowded into FEMA trailers no bigger than the corner of the Tierra Linda Library and thousands of residents who left and haven’t come back, Wilma Rizzardi said.

Grocery shopping is done in another town but small businesses like the hardware store are beginning to operate out of trailers. A feeding station still churns out about 2,000 meals a day, the neighboring Home Depot has more customers than it can handle and hotels now allow pets because so many residents refused to evacuate because of the animals. A former Mississippi resident who survived a 1969 hurricane at age 10 donated a playground because she remembered wanting one so badly after that storm.

The football team only had about a dozen players who lost every game, making the season “pretty dreadful,” Lou Rizzardi said. But each contest was close and the high school team the Pirates “show you can really excel in adversity,” Rizzardi said.

His wife also pointed out students especially found creative ways to cope. One girl, eager to attend the prom but without a dress, made a colorful version out of duct tape, she said.

The couple were upbeat but honest in recounting the catastrophe — necessary traits considering some of the direct questions the library full of students threw at them.

How many people died? Twenty-five and one is still missing. The average age of the dead is 69, reflecting the retirement community’s residents and a strong desire by many not to leave pets behind.

How many are unemployed? Between 15 and 20 percent, about 1,000 people.

Were people injured? There were many broken legs and cuts.

Was it as bad as New Orleans? That city was damaged more from broken levees than a direct storm hit but “the end result is just about the same,” said Lou Rizzardi.

Are people scared of another hurricane? There is concern but “nobody’s running away.”

Why would anybody want to live where there are hurricanes? The experience can’t be much different than braving the uncertainty of earthquakes, Lou Rizzardi said.

Also, he added, “The coastline is so beautiful. It’s almost as beautiful as what you have here.”

Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.