After spending 48th birthday alone in S.F. hotel, woman is happy
to be in Gilroy
Gilroy – Sandra McInnis spent her 48th birthday alone in a hotel room 1,800 miles from her home in Mount Olive, Miss. The Hurricane Katrina survivor evacuated the Gulf Coast with her sister, driving 36 hours almost non-stop to San Francisco to escape the nightmare of the days after the flooding.
“It was awful,” she said, her brown eyes filling with tears. “To see everything blowing every which way, people drowning because they didn’t know how to swim, the casinos were in the street. It was awful – and then it took so long to get any help.”
Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast Aug. 29 and is blamed for the death of more than 1,300 people.
Due to failing health, McInnis left the Gulf Coast weeks after the storm hit and arrived in San Francisco Sept. 24, where she stayed with family members until South County Housing Corporation found her a temporary apartment on Eigleberry Street for the next six months.
She tried contacting family members for weeks after the storm. McInnis posted an ad on a hurricane Web site searching for missing relatives. Slowly information began surfacing about loved ones.
“My cousin just laid there for two days with (his dead wife) in his arms,” McInnis said, dabbing her eyes with a tissue. “He’s never been able to get back to settle the funeral arrangements because the next storm hit.”
Her mother still does not have a working phone. A friend’s child cries every time she hears the sound of water running.
The images of the women crying at shelters because they lost their children still haunts McInnis and she remembers panicking until she received word that her two grown children were alive.
“It’s probably going to take years and years to get everything right,” she said.
Although McInnis is separated from her eight siblings, she found comfort in her new neighbor – Alton Chalk, a New Orleans native who fled the Gulf Coast and came to live in Gilroy late last month. Chalk, a former limousine and cab driver, spends much of his time cruising around town – an old habit he’s yet to break – sometimes turning up at St. Joseph’s Family Center where he’s started to volunteer.
He was visiting McInnis Friday as she settled into her new home.
McInnis’ apartment is partially furnished with donations from the Gilroy community. A matching couch and chair set rest in the living room.
She appears partial to the chair and talks with her feet crossed on the glass coffee tabletop, a bouquet of belated birthday flowers from South County Housing in the center.
“I brought all my gospel tapes, But I don’t got no radio,” she said laughing.
The walls and floors are bare. The only belongings McInnis has are the clothes she packed in her sister’s car.
She was not used to the urban hustle of San Francisco, and despite having family there, she was ready to move.
“I like it here, it’s quiet,” McInnis said.
Both she and Chalk are learning to navigate their new surroundings, as will two additional displaced families who are expected to move to Gilroy in the coming months.
Rachel Castro, a South County Housing neighborhood developer, spent much of last week giving McInnis a driving tour of Gilroy.
“Everybody’s just so nice – and that’s the way God wanted us to be,” McInnis said.
Her faith has played a large part in how she digests what happened in the days and weeks after Katrina. Even after spending Oct. 6 alone in that San Francisco hotel room McInnis remains positive.
“You really realize how blessed you are,” she said. “It could have been you, your grandchild (who didn’t survive) … I know God is not going to put more on you than you can handle.”
