SAN ANTONIO – Twenty years have passed since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast.
More than 100,000 evacuees took refuge in Texas. Tens of thousands of those evacuees came to San Antonio.
Rodney Boisley and Angela Williams undoubtedly remember the day Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005.
“The power lines were under water. No rooftops, no nothing,” Boisley said. “It was right in the middle of the gulf. So, I was like, just, you know, in my mind, I was, like, ‘Nobody’s alive.’ Whoever’s in the house is dead. 100%.”
“The wind was so strong it would like literally move your car over and other people’s cars and the kids are screaming,” Williams said. “It was a nightmare.”
Boisley and Williams said they lost their homes and everything they held dear.
Boisley had to stay in New Orleans because he was working at one of the city’s hospitals. That hospital lost power after the first day, so they moved all the patients and staff onto its roof.
For five days, Boisley said they fought for survival on the roof. Unfortunately, he said many died.
“Having those patients pass away and then having to shake that thing off and then grab this body and take this body over to an area and put multiple bodies in that one area,” Boisley said. “You know, the mental state you have to be in to just, like, to do that, you know, like, to just shake it off.”
It was dark, hot and they only had water.
Boisley said there weren’t any meals. The only food available were two pieces of ham and a pudding pack for each person over those five days. Otherwise, all they could do was wait to be rescued.
Thanks to someone who figured out how to charge cellphones through the wires from a broken generator, Boisley said he was able to get one bar on his phone to call his wife.
“On the third day, I was able to call my wife and let her know that I was at least alive for just a short moment,” Boisley said. “And that was a very emotional call.”
On the fifth day, he said the U.S. Air Force rescued them. Boisley was bused to Houston, where he finally reunited with his wife and two young children who were under the age of seven.
His family then found refuge here in San Antonio because he had an uncle at Lackland Air Force Base.
Boisley’s family lived with his uncle for a short time, until they were able to get jobs and, eventually, their own home.
Williams was able to evacuate with her then-three kids, all younger than 10 years old, right before the storm hit.
She said they spent 12 hours in the car just to travel what would normally be a one-hour drive.
Finding a safe place for weeks after that was hard.
“Thirteen of us in one motel room. Not a hotel, but a motel room,” Williams said. “So, we were just all over the floor. Sometimes, we’d take a nap in the bed, a chair, just whatever we could do to survive at that point.”
Williams said they had to stay there for weeks. But it was her faith that brought her to San Antonio.
“I just heard from God: ‘Call your brother,’” Williams said. “And the phone worked, and I called him. And he was just so grateful to hear my voice. And he’s like, ‘Angela, leave. Leave right now, and come down here. Come to my house. You know, we’ll take care of you.’”
Williams, a pastor, now owns two Christian book stores in San Antonio called Abba Fathers.
Boisley continues to work in the medical field and also DJs on the side.
Both have homes in the Alamo City where their children grew up and thrived.
“I had got a job, like, ASAP, you know. So, as soon as I got out here, boom, I got a job,” Boisley said. “And everybody treated me awesome, you know, it was awesome. So, it was mostly the reason why I stayed in San Antonio was, looking at my kids, one: family decision. And two: the people. People made everything for me out here.”
“The beauty of it is they didn’t have to know me,” Williams said. “They loved me, and they didn’t have to know me. People were collecting money, and they had no idea who I was. It was just a story they heard, and so, they just wanted to give. And I think that’s a very rare thing to find. And so, how do you leave that? How do you walk away from that?
“I love Louisiana. I’ll always love it, but San Antonio’s now home.”
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