Douglas daily dispatch., 1928-03-25

Santa Clara district. Miss Helen
Kersey, field representative for lda-
ho, and Otto Lund, field represen-
tative for Washington, have been
ordered to proceed at once to Santa
Paula for assignment as case work
ers. With the addition of these
two, there are now 10 members Of
the Pacific branch office staff at
work in the disaster.
Relief headquarters at Santa
Paula have been set up in a school
house, where the class rooms
where fragments of the lessons of
March IL, the day before the flood,
are still to be seen on the black
boards-have been turned into reg
istration rooms, canteens and cloth
ing depots. Mexican women and
girls, students of the Americaniza-
ton school, instead Of studying
their regular lessons, are busily
mending and altering the donated
garments before they are assembled
on long tables for distribution.
There is also a clinic, for the few
cases of sickness or injury that
have occurred. Every precaution is
being taken to guard against an
epidemic. The state board of health
| is inoculating everyone, and hand
bills in Spanish urge the Mexicans
/ to take advantage Of this protec-
tion. Outside of the inoculatlon
tent is a constant line waiting to
receive the vaccine
A string of police cars, assigned
to the Red Cross by the city Of Los
! Angeles, take the workers on the
tlong trips that must be made be-
tween Santa Paula and Los Angeles.
The motor corps of the Los Angeles
chapter, which has been on duty
since the early hours of the morn
ing of the disaster, take the case
workers on their trips about the
valley to check the dead and miss
/ ing.
Although the bulk of the relief
work is centered in Santa Paula
where approximately 800 families
were affected--there are canteens
in operation at Saugus and Newhall
that have been open since within
two hours of the catastrophe. Food,
equipment and workers were rush
ed there by the Los Angeles chap
ter before daylight the morning of
March 13 Two chapter workers
are still there, assisting the local
Red Cross representatives. From
them have come many stories of the
splendid devotion to duty shown by
the survivors of the disaster. none
more moving than that of the wo-
nft OF d
ing in the morning the funeral OF
her three children, heroically re-
turned to the canteen in the after
noon to assist with the preparation
! Of the evening. meal.
Some idea of the terrific force of
the water and of the devastating
effect upon the upper valley may be
gained from the fact that of 63
families living between Newhall and
,Castaic, only nine persons are now
living. In this portion of the val
ley once green with orchards, there
/ is not sign of tree or human
habitation. Everything is wiped
clean for miles or buried under
several feet Of silt.
, Up to the morning Of March 49,,
according to report received at
! Pacific branch headquarters from
/ Miss Marianne King, assistant ma
tional director of publicity, who has
been assigned to the disaster staff,
! the total of recovered dead was
! 262, with 179 still missing and be-
lieved dead. The total number Of
families affected will probably prove
to be more than 500. Thousands
/ of acres Of land were either totally
or partially destroyed, consisting of
citrus fruit and apricot orchards,
walnut groves, vegetable gardens,
acres of alfalfa and pasture lands.
/ Work Of clearing the debris is be-
! inr. carried on by tractors and
heavy work crew teams, supplied to
the Red Cross by the Los Angeles
water and power department, fol-
lowed up by gangs OF hand labor
25 men to gang-furnished by
the Red Cross.
/
! y 49, Il,