Many elderly residents still cope with changes from Katrina

Margaret "Sally" McInnis still sits on chairs she's owned for decades. She still wears her pale blue nightgown. And she still watches her favorite television shows. 

But since Hurricane Katrina destroyed her house and her beloved 10-year-old blue Buick, almost everything else has changed. 

"When I leave this world, I want them to write that the cause was Katrina," said McInnis, 92, who now lives in a rental house around the corner from her destroyed home. "It has disrupted my entire life." 

McInnis had just left her favorite rocking chair for bed on the morning of Aug. 29 when four massive live oaks pierced the roof and walls of the Corinne Street house where she lived for more than 40 years. 

One tree crushed the rocker where she was sitting minutes earlier watching "Live With Regis & Kelly." Finding herself trapped behind felled trees that obstructed all exits, McInnis called 911 and waited for rescue. 

McInnis is just one of many elderly South Mississippians forced to undergo traumatic changes because of Katrina at a stage in their lives when most count on established routines. 

For many senior citizens, being uprooted from longtime familiar surroundings and facing exacerbated health problems are among the hurricane's many lingering effects. 

Statistics from the 2000 Census show that Forrest and Lamar counties are home to 12,039 people over the age of 65 - about 11 percent of the counties' combined population of 111,674. 

Area agencies that serve the elderly felt Katrina's effects soon after the winds subsided - several seniors moved into the Hattiesburg Convalescent Center following the storm, said social worker Cathy Norris. 

Ronda Gooden, a spokeswoman for AARP Mississippi, said South Mississippi's seniors faced a litany of problems in the days following Katrina - and many needs still remain. 

Besides medical crises, Gooden said, many elderly citizens continue to grapple with relocation headaches, insurance claims, rebuilding and consumer fraud. 

Sometimes less visible is the psychological distress that can accompany an unforeseen ordeal like Katrina, said Beverly Smallwood, a psychologist at the Hope Center in Hattiesburg. 

"As people age and develop health problems and physical limitations, predictability in their environment becomes even more important to them," Smallwood said. "Staying safe and maintaining a sense of control at a time when life may feel out of control is crucial." 

Storm stress 

The stress of a destructive storm can aggravate existing health conditions, said Sheri Lokken Worthy, an associate professor in the School of Human Sciences at Mississippi State University. 

Worthy, who sits on MSU's gerontology committee, said the elderly aren't as capable of adjusting to physical stress because of lowered response time to extremes in heat or cold or other sudden environmental changes. 

Barbara "Nanny" Walters, 83, learned just that in the sweltering days after Katrina. Her heart condition deteriorated without air conditioning, and she said she spent four days in Forrest General Hospital. 

"To tell you the truth, I slept through the whole thing," Walters said of the hurricane. She laughed while sitting at a table in Nanny's Country Kitchen, the Hattiesburg restaurant she runs with her daughter Mary Meadows. 

Despite Walters' hospital stint, the restaurant reopened about a week after the storm. Though Meadows said her mother is a determined woman, she struggled to tolerate the post-storm conditions. 

"We just couldn't get any air stirring - and we call the doctor if she even breathes crooked," Meadows said. "We did without electricity for three days when (Hurricane) Camille came, so we figured it would be a similar thing." 

Though Sally McInnis also lived through Camille in 1969, readjustment after Katrina has been more difficult. Her family moved to Hattiesburg from Meridian in 1921, and McInnis said she watched the city grow from a rural village into the shady, bustling community she loves. 

She said the loss of Hattiesburg's foliage, violently pruned by Katrina, is a source of heartache for her. 

"Looking around now, it's just pathetic," McInnis said. 

Beyond salvation 

With McInnis' home and car beyond salvation, she moved into a bungalow on Harley Lane and donated to charity much of the property she couldn't take along. 

"Sometimes I begin to think, 'Where's so-and-so?'" McInnis said. "Of course, I can't place it because it's lost or destroyed or given away. Then I have to remember I'm just fortunate to have what I have." 

Distraught at the loss of the Buick that for her symbolized independence, McInnis now relies on her son, James Edward McInnis, who moved back to Hattiesburg from California to be near her last July. 

"It really grates on her nerves not to be able to go out and get a bunch of bananas or go to the bank's drive-up window," said James Edward McInnis, 68, who co-owns Micawber's Antiques, Etc. on Walnut Circle. 

"Now we have to do it for her." 

And the storm has taken much more from his mother, he said. 

"It's such an emotional strain to lose one's home, especially after such a long period of time," he said. "It's something that represents independence and a kind of security in this country, and now for her that's gone." 

Sally McInnis said she is trying to move past Katrina, but every aspect of her new life reminds her of what she has lost. 

"It's just a shock," she said. "One day, everything can be so placid and you do what you please. Then the next day it's just a different ballgame. You have to make up your mind to adjust."