Morgan Hill resident Ida Jean Woodruff is deployed in Texas as a
member of a Santa Clara Valley Red Cross team helping people
affected by Hurricane Emily.
Morgan Hill resident Ida Jean Woodruff is deployed in Texas as a member of a Santa Clara Valley Red Cross team helping people affected by Hurricane Emily.
Emily, a category three storm with winds of 125 mph, hit early Wednesday morning off the eastern coast of Mexico, south of Texas.
While the brunt of the storm hit Mexican cities, southern Texas still saw the effects and were placed under tornado and hurricane watches.
Woodruff, a retired Live Oak math teacher, left late Saturday for San Antonio as a disaster assessment technician who will go out and identify which homes need help. While Woodruff is certified for international relief work, her husband Woody Woodruff said it was unlikely she would be sent to Mexico.
Woody Woodruff said he doesn’t know exactly where his wife is being deployed, but thinks she may be in the southern tip of Texas. Likewise, he said he doesn’t know when she will return, but it will be after the job is done.
“She will come home whenever they don’t need her services anymore,” he said.
Both Ida Jean and Woody Woodruff have been involved with the Red Cross since the late 1980s, working disaster relief all over the United States.
“We have both been involved for years to help people that Mother Nature romps on for one reason or another,” Woody Woodruff said.
