University of Mississippi - Ole Miss Yearbook (Oxford, MS)

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Hurricane Camille was supposed to be the worst thing that could ever happen to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Journalism professor Nancy Dupont was a teenager living in Gulfport when the inexplicably powerful Category 5 storm destroyed the state ' s coastline in August 1969. While many of her friends left for college, she staved at home to help her parents repair the damage Camille left behind. Decades later in 2005, after a successful journalism career and earning her Ph.D. from the UniversiU ' of Southern Mississippi, Dupont and her husband moved to New Orleans, where she began teaching full-time at Loyola University. That summer, amid the most record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season to date, what started as a tropical depression in the Bahamas had strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane by Friday, August 29. Two days later, Dupont left New Orleans for Gulfport to pick up her parents, fearful of the potentially cataclysmic impact of Hurricane Katrina, which was expected to make landfall the following day. Katrina arrived right on time, decimating most of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, killing hundreds and resulting in billions of dollars in damage. Dupont and her father found their home in ruins when they were able to return to Gulfport. Her parents, both 80, had no choice but to move in with her. Traumatized and exhausted, Dupont believed the worst was behind her until nine months later, when Loyola laidoff 17 professors, including her. I was in complete shock, Dupont said. Not only was I struggling with rebuilding my life and finding a place for my parents, now I had to find a new job. Dupont had always joked with her dad, an Ole Miss alumnus, that maybe one day she would end up teaching at the university. When she found out about an opening in the journalism department, she applied, and Dupont and her husband drove to Oxford the following week for an interview. It was after that interview that she came across a well-known Frank Everett quote displayed in the smdent union: There is a valid distinction between The University and Ole Miss even though the separate threads are closely interwoven. The University is buildings, trees and people. Ole Miss is mood, emotion and personality. One is physical, and the other is spiritual. One is tangible and the other intangible. The University is respected, but Ole Miss is loved. The University gives a diploma and regretfully terminates tenure, but one never graduates from Ole Miss. I burst into tears as soon as I read that quote, she said. If this is what people thought about this universit} ' , this campus, the people, this is where I wanted to be. The students, the facult} ' and the community were extremely supportive and understood what she was going through. After everything I ' ve been through, I have learned one valuable lesson, Dupont said. Nothing is strong enough to ever take your hopes or dreams away. Christina Thompson still relives her experience with Hurricane Katrina. A Pascagoula native, Thompson lived in the same beachfront house since she was 7. The Thompson family was always prepared for hurricanes. When we moved into our house, it was already 50 years old and had somehow survived Hurricane Camille, she said. When a storm would come, we knew the house might flood a little but none of us could have anticipated Katrina. The night before the storm struck, her family went to stay with relatives in North Pascagoula. All we had was the clothes on our backs and maybe a toothbrush, Thompson said. After two days, Thompson saw the aftermath for the first time. Power lines were down and trees were broken in half, but it was nothing out of the ordinary. But then, my family and I waded through the water, it was up to our knees. We had to climb over roofs, through random trash to finally get to our house. The entire row of houses was completely wiped out; nothing was there. Left homeless and unsure of what to do next, the Thompson family began to sift through the rubble, finding odds and ends. We would find the weirdest things. My mom found our dishwasher a couple blocks away that still had perfectly good dishes in, she said. After that, everything we would find, she referred to as ' pieces of hope. ' With help from the community, the Thompson family rebuilt their house, and more importantiy, their lives. It was upsetting losing sentimental items you had since childhood, and of course, losing your home, she said. But in the grand scheme of things, it ' s just about a bunch of stuff; you ' ll always have family. story JORDIE KIRKHAM photos SUSAN HOLT (unless specified, katrina damage pinotos from the carol m. highsmith collection, courtesy of the library of congress) -56-

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Christina Thompson holds the keepsakes from her home in Pascagoula, Miss., which was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. -2S- i I

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TOP and TOP RIGHT Nancy Dupont holds one of the few items she was able to recover from her home ' s wreckage following Hurncane K.atrina: her father ' s graduation announcement from Ole Miss. ABOVE affle House Restaurant torn apart by Hurncane Katrina on the Biloxi, Miss. coastline. FAR LEFT Christina Thompson looks through photographs of her home in Pascagoula, Miss after Hurricane KCatrina. CENTER Onlv steps left after 2005 Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast