Tatty Reid is an unlucky senior citizen.

Within the space of three days, when Hurricane Ivan struck, she was washed out of three places where she sought shelter.

She is currently living in a fourth, which has lost most of its roof, but this time she has nowhere else to go.

Reid is one of 20 or more residents who sought refuge at the Marlie Hill Primary School. The pit latrines have been blown away but many refuge seekers were still there on Tuesday when the Observer visited South Manchester. Her grown children live somewhere in Kingston.

Reid, who suffers from mental illness, was busy wiping the floor of a section of the school room where she has been staying.

“This is my September 11,” she said good-naturedly, equating her situation with the thousands of victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorism attacks on the United States.

The well-spoken Reid told her tale.

“I left Marlie Hill and rented a room in Old House. I was washed out, and I went to the old shop room, where I was also washed out,” she said.

Her misery continued, and she journeyed through the strong winds to seek refuge at the home of (a friend whom she only identified as) Lucky – a resident of the area.

Despite Lucky’s name, she fared no better there.

“The roof blew off there, and so I had to come to the school; and see, the roof is almost gone,” she said.

In addition, she is not exactly having harmonious relations with the other residents.

The men complained that she urinates in the pots and bins in the nights, and that was the cause of the pungent smell of urine in the air.

However, Reid had a sharp retort, telling her accusers that the ganja smell that was attributable to them was just as bad as the urine.

But she did not deny their claims.

“Miss, I am a senior citizen you hear. And in the nights, I pass my urine in the bin. See it there, see it there,” she said.

“I don’t wee wee in any pot, you here miss. Let me show you the pot,” she said, running for the pot and forcing this reporter to sniff for the odour for urine.

When she used the bin to urinate, Reid said, “I get up early in the morning and disinfect it.”

She accused the residents, mostly males, of hiding the disinfectant from her.

But officials from PATH had visited them, Reid said, and brought some supplies – including disinfectant.