Southern Californians endured another round of wildfires in mid-November that destroyed entire neighborhoods, including more than 479 homes in Sylmar’s Oakridge Mobile Home Park. The Red Cross continues to assist more than 300 families in fire-damaged areas.
Mandatory evacuations in the Sylmar area alone caused 1,798 people to seek refuge at four Greater Los Angeles Red Cross shelters located at San Fernando Valley, Sylmar, Chatsworth and Kennedy High Schools. From Nov. 14 to Nov. 21, the chapter provided 901 overnight stays at the shelters. This fire destroyed the largest number of housing units in Los Angeles since the Bel Air fire in 1961.
Nearly 160 local and national volunteers and staff members worked around the clock helping with the relief operation, serving more than 35,000 meals and snacks to people at the four shelters and to first responders. After the fires ended, Red Cross personnel distributed more than 5,000 recovery items, including shovels, racks and gloves to disaster clients in the Los Angeles area.
Red Cross nurses and disaster mental health specialists were part of the Red Cross volunteer team at each shelter. Karin Hart, an Agoura Hills-based psychologist, clinical instructor at UCLA and Red Cross Disaster Mental Health specialist, was one of the volunteers on-site to assist evacuees.
Hart said that part of dealing with tragedy is being able to talk about it, as well as expressing emotions such as grief, anger and fear. She added that understanding how to take small steps and make manageable goals are ways of feeling more in control. She recalls talking with an older man in a Red Cross shelter who was weeping, worrying about how he’d provide for his family.
“It was obvious he was totally overwhelmed,” she said. “I talked to him about what he could do today, not worry about taking care of his family for the rest of his life. That afternoon I saw him at the computer looking up resources.”
The Greater Los Angeles Red Cross partnered with a number of agencies to provide disaster relief to wildfire clients and would like to thank the following organizations: Goodwill Southern California, Salvation Army, Sylmar Neighborhood Council, St. Didacus Church, Councilmember Richard Alarcon and his office and the Tzu Chi Foundation.
Tags: wildfires assistance
