Esther Hoffman was hanging out in a borrowed minivan in the Navy Exchange parking lot on Santo Road on Thursday morning, just hours after a small plane crashed into her military housing community of Murphy Canyon.
The car belonged to a neighbor, but at that moment, it was a haven away from the deadly chaos that unraveled just a street up from her home on Yorktown Drive. If it weren’t for her neighbor, she and her family would likely have had to escape the thick smoke on foot.
“I think what is really great is just because we are all military, we have that ‘we are in this together’ type deal,” said Hoffman. “We all kind of always have that banding together.”
A neighbor whom Alana Ballote is unfamiliar with did the same for her and her family, who live on Salmon Street, just a few feet from the crash site.
“I don’t know who it was that pounded on our door and was like, ‘Get out, get your family out,’” said Ballote. “But we didn’t second-guess it. You kind of rely on the community around you. People you’ve never met before become your family and friends, your closest family.”
Ballote and Hoffman soon witnessed how large and tight-knit the military community was, as dozens hustled to gather donations for their own.
The Murphy Canyon area of Tierrasanta has more than 2,300 military family homes, said Naval Base Capt. Robert Healy. It has a notable history as a training ground during World War II and later as military housing. Residents there are from all military branches, stationed across San Diego.
“This military community has been a fixture in San Diego for many, many decades,” said Ashley Camac, chief executive officer of Zero8Hundred. The nonprofit s service and their families, and on Thursday, it coordinated donations for them.
Schools in the area are even considered “Purple Star” sites, a designation the state gives to schools that military-connected families.
Miller Elementary, just a mile north of the crash site, is one of them. It shut down on Thursday to serve as an evacuation center. It’s where evacuees, many in their pajamas, had their first drink of water or meal since fleeing their homes, hugged their neighbors, or helped a stranger.
Zero8Hundred, Liberty Military Housing, the Armed Services YMCA, the Red Cross, the United Service Organizations San Diego, and several other public organizations coordinated the site, which was quickly set up in the school’s parking lot. The site offered food, day care services, access to showers, and other resources.
Police officers, firefighters and service hustled to unload carloads of diapers, car seats, clothes, toys, books and toiletries that residents had dropped off.
Dan Pike, a senior chief in the U.S. Navy for nearly two decades, was among those organizing donations.
“I’m pretty proud of the response from the team, and it’s our family that’s gotten injured,” he said. “So, I’ll do anything for them.”
Miller and Hancock elementary schools were set to reopen Friday with a regular school schedule. San Diego Unified School District officials said all donations and efforts would shift to Hancock Elementary on Friday. Officials added that a parent meeting to provide updates and an opportunity to ask questions is scheduled for 7:45 a.m. Friday at Hancock.
Back at the Navy Exchange, Liberty Military Housing workers walked through the parking lot, ing out food and doughnuts to evacuated families. The agency, which manages the Murphy Canyon properties, was working to help more than three dozen families find temporary housing.
“I do feel like if this were to happen in a non-military neighborhood, it would have been a whole lot more scattered,” said Hoffman. “We have the of the military, and we have the of the military housing people as well. There’s a huge community.”
Staff writer Karen Kucher contributed to this report.
