SANTA ANA : Couple to Take Part in Hurricane Relief Effort

By THAO HUA

Oct. 10, 1995 12 AM PT

Hurricane Opal sent one Orange County couple packing Monday night.

But Al and Jean Reynolds of Santa Ana weren’t trying to escape the aftermath of the hurricane that killed about 30 people last week. They were trying to hurry to it.

The couple planned to leave for Montgomery, Ala., this morning to help assess damage in the region, along with about eight other volunteers from the Orange County chapter of the American Red Cross. The pair will be driving through designated areas to figure out what was lost in winds that gusted up to 145 m.p.h. Damage is estimated at about $2 billion so far, state authorities said.

Their work will help the Red Cross determine what supplies and services are needed in what areas and help hurricane victims get help quicker, said Jean Reynolds, 61.

“There’s no way you can replace what a person has lost,” she said. “You can only help them get what they need.”

About two years ago, the couple began volunteering as a way to “give back to the community” after their retirements, Jean Reynolds said. Since then, they have helped victims in disaster areas that include the Virgin Islands after Hurricane Marilyn last month, the Northridge earthquake in 1994 and the Laguna Beach fire in 1993.

Because Al Reynolds ran a contracting firm before he retired, most of the couple’s work involves damage assessment, they said. Sometimes that includes damage that can’t be measured.

In St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, the couple said, they went to a house to try to determine what the family had lost. They discovered four children on the front porch and their father inside, unable to move because of an injured foot. The children, who had been trying to feed him, did not know what to do or where to go for medical help.

The couple found that help for the family. “I was so excited and interested in helping him,” Al Reynolds said.

Red Cross officials are asking anyone who wants to make a donation toward Hurricane Opal relief efforts to call (714) 835-5381.