For Red Cross Worker It’s a Long, Wet Year

It’s been a wet year for Lyssa Kerridwynn of Sylmar.

No, it wasn’t the local rains. Kerridwynn is a Red Cross volunteer on her third flood assignment this year. She dedicates her time as a family service specialist, working through the Van Nuys district office of the American Red Cross.

She helped flood victims during March and April in Kentucky, during April and May in North Dakota and is now in Sterling, Colo., east of Fort Collins. The town was hit hard by flash flooding July 28.

Kerridwynn, who also responded to the tornado in southeast Michigan in July, meets one-on-one with those affected by disasters to assess their needs and provide vouchers for emergency assistance.

She said flood victims, who in Colorado range from apartment dwellers to farmers, sometimes have difficulty facing the severity of their losses.

“Their house is hanging off the foundations and they are in mud up to their thighs, and they’re saying, ‘We’ll get the place fixed up,’ ” she said. “The extent of the damage that’s been done just hasn’t sunk in yet.”

Kerridwynn, 33, became acquainted with the Red Cross as a youngster when she stayed in one of its shelters after her family’s home was destroyed in the February 1971 Sylmar earthquake.

At age 14, she joined a Red Cross Youth Disaster Action Team and now, supported by her husband, Todd Brown, has been a volunteer for nearly 20 years.

Two other Valley residents, Simona Kreitzman of Calabasas and Kathryn Martin of Northridge, also are working as volunteers in northeastern Colorado.

Kreitzman, a family services technician, is on her second assignment of the year following work at the Sacramento Valley flooding in January. Martin, who is a health services technician, is on her first national disaster assignment for 1997.

Information about Red Cross disaster activities is available at the agency’s Web site at https://www.redcross.org.