Paula Lindsay was excited about the move. The business she'd started from scratch just a few years earlier, The Pass Christian Soap Company, had grown larger and faster than she could have hoped.....In August 2005, Paula was ready to move her operation from a small cottage in the quaint coastal town of Pass Christian, Mississippi to a large warehouse near the interstate that would give the company the room it needed to grow.

Instead, Paula got a move of a different kind. Hurricane Katrina blew ashore on August 29 and battered the region. Coastal Mississippi bore the brunt of the storm's ferocious winds and tidal surge. Much of Pass Christian, like many towns along the coast, literally was washed out to see. Katrina submerged Paula's home and cottage that held Pass Christian Soap under more than 20 feet of water. When she finally returned, Paula recovered only a few knick-knacks and a couple of lawn chairs. The storm ruined her soap making equipment and cases of product that sat waiting to be shipped. It took her home, her family heirlooms, even the pictures and videos of her children.

Read the complete story as published in Southern Breeze Magazine. (624k PDF file, Adobe Acrobat Reader required)

Paula and daughter, Heather (left), son Bobby, above

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