(The following article by Brian Chasnoff was posted on the San Antonio Express-News website on January 7.)
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — In some ways, serenity has been restored to a neighborhood just north of downtown that saw a day of havoc in October when a Union Pacific train jumped the tracks, plowing into two homes but injuring no one.
Repairs to the tracks have calmed the nerves of one resident who was reduced to tears. One damaged house has been restored, and another home, partly wrecked by a renegade boxcar, was demolished by the city and replaced with a smooth plot of dirt.
But inside one yellow house on Hickman, the tremors of the runaway train still resound.
“As you can see, I’ve got my house up for sale,” said Yolanda Dominguez, 47. “I’m getting out of here.”
Fearing a boxcar someday could kill her 1-year-old grandson, Dominguez decided to sell the home she inherited three years ago from her father.
Her husband, plagued by nightmares after the derailment, has moved away.
Affected his life
The husband, Richard Salinas, had just poured his morning cup of coffee and settled onto the back porch about 11 a.m. that day when he witnessed the 106-car train come apart and slam into a bedroom two houses away.
“It’s been affecting me ever since — my sleep, my eating habits, my mood swings,” Salinas said.
In the days after the Oct. 17 wreck, Salinas barely could sleep without dreaming about the train coming toward him. Union Pacific is paying for Salinas to see a psychiatrist, who diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder and suggested he leave the neighborhood, he said.
Anxiety and rage began to well up in his waking hours. One night, the couple fell into a heated argument. Salinas moved out.
Now, he stutters for the first time in his life. Sometimes, he said, his mind becomes mired in the past, and he calls out for his young children who long since have grown.
“His memory went back to the ’70s,” Dominguez said. “He was asking what time Dallas was coming on.”
The train, Salinas said, still rumbles into his dreams.
“I see the whole thing happening again and again,” he said.
Others not worried
The fears of Marcelinda Guadiana, however, have been calmed.
Guadiana, 68, remembers feeling her floorboards shake moments before a boxcar slid into the house directly behind hers on Hickman.
A few days later, she wept at the prospect that her home could be next.
She since has found peace.
“They fixed the tracks good now,” she said. “It doesn’t feel the way it used to. I feel comfortable with them now.”
David Heinemann, a resident on Weymouth, echoed her composure.
“I don’t worry about it,” he said. “I like the neighborhood, the people. Tracks are just one of those little inconveniences of life, like living next to the airport.”
Different kind of hurt
Joe Arbona, a Union Pacific spokesman, said the damaged tracks have been replaced, and the company is working with people affected by the wreck.
“Safety is a very important factor for us,” he said. “Right there, you had a derailment. Fortunately, no one was hurt.”
For Salinas and Dominguez, who said they aren’t seeking damages against Union Pacific, hurt sometimes is inflicted in ways not visible.
“They say there were no victims,” Salinas said. “I think I was a victim.”