Katrina survivor Susan Seagle Dunlap is very familiar with what a Category 5 hurricane can do. As a Gulf coast resident for 45 years, she has seen probably an average of one hurricane per year hit the Gulf region.

In 1969, Hurricane Camille struck the gulf coast, destroying nearly all in its path. Back then, Susan was the wife of retired Navy officer, Boone Dunlap. Camille destroyed her seaside home in Long Beach, Mississippi, prompting the family to move further inland at Gulfport.

In the Katrina aftermath, the inside of Susan’s home looks like a hamster cage. Inside there is about a foot of wood chips and rubble left from the rising floodwaters during the Gulf’s most destructive storm on record.

Inside the various rooms of what was once a picturesque seaside cottage, a clear and visible water line exists on the walls. Above the waterline, books by the dozens rest easily on their shelves. Light fixtures and other upper level belongings remain virtually untouched. The lower half of Susan’s home is utterly destroyed, if not by sheer force of the water and wind, then by water damage and mildew.

Inside what was once her living-room rests three sofas, one of which doesn’t belong to Susan. The outside is even worse. The yard is piled nearly five feet high with twisted pieces of tin and more wood, probably remnants of other homes in the area. In front of the pile of rubble that remains, sits Susan’s late husband’s wheelchair, twisted and unusable due to the wind and waters that wrecked scores of other structures in its path. Luckily, Susan evacuated to her daughter’s home in Hattiesburg. But when it came time to salvage what little there was left, she decided never to return. “I am 83 years old and I really do not feel like undertaking rebuilding. The effort and the energy that it takes to rebuild is something I just don’t have.”

Some of the most precious things Susan lost were photographs, letters and especially two napkins on which her late husband wrote the words “I owe you 365 days of my undivided devotion.” Her husband was ill at the time and a retired Navy officer, and he had written his sentiments down on a napkin to show his love for Susan. That following year, he had done the same thing by inscribing those same words upon a simple napkin. Those two napkins were probably the most prized possessions she owned, but sadly, they were not recovered. In the end, she decided that all these things were simply “material,” and therefore, not as important as life itself.

 “There are things much more indelible than pictures or letters,” Susan said softly. “Anytime I want to recall these things, I can rely on my memory for them.”

Nearly a month after the hurricane hit, Susan decided to make her way back down to Gulfport to see if she could find anything of sentimental value in the rubble. CAP Communications Manager

Jennifer Lavender met her there at the home.  Susan said she needed to sort through her belongings to see if she could salvage anything of sentimental value, but was unable to do this

because of the furniture scattered throughout her home. One couch, situated on its back inside what looked to be the living room, did not even belong to her.

That following day, several CAP Disaster Relief workers came to move the furniture that lay on what could be precious belongings of Susan’s. Five crew members, all donned with face masks to protect themselves from black mold, made their way from the shelter in Ocean Springs to Susan’s house in Gulfport, ready to remove waterlogged furniture and debris from her home.

After several large pieces of water-soaked furniture were removed from the house, Susan, along with her renter and friend, Cliff Triplett, sorted through the muck and found some irreplaceable personal items. The most treasured item she found was her book of letters to her husband that she had written throughout the years. The book included excerpts from different times throughout the Dunlap family’s lives that sort of serves as a living history of the family itself. “I found it easy to write letters to my husband,” said Susan. “Writing or journaling was a way of releasing tension and stress, and it also afforded me a way of expressing myself through words. I suppose it also serves as a record of family history as well.”

In addition to the book, Susan and Cliff were also able to recover a bronze man that was purchased in Japan during the Korean War, as well as two custom-made teakwood tables made in Japan. And although they were in pretty poor condition, the two were also able to salvage two portraits made by Susan’s son-in-law, Charles Price.

One would think that amidst the tragedy of losing everything that Susan would be sad or angry, but to her, she felt lucky, lucky to be alive, yes, but also lucky to have survived Camille, which kind of prepared her for what was to come in surviving Katrina. “I feel fortunate to have been conditioned to this type of thing when I made it through Camille,” said Susan.

NOTHING BUT RUBBLE: (Top Right)

Susan Seagle Dunlap (see inset above) lived in the coastal town of Gulfport, Mississippi, for 35 years when Katrina struck August 28. When Hurricane Camille struck her home in 1969, Susan moved to Gulfport from Long Beach, Mississippi. According to the locals, if you made it through Camille, you could withstand anything.

SALVAGING WHAT’S LEFT: (3rd. Down Left)

   CAP Disaster Relief Workers remove waterlogged furniture from Susan’s Gulfport, Miss. home.