NATCHEZ — Red Cross volunteer Ann Thornhill can’t isolate just one devastating story about the flooding in Iowa.

As a first hand witness to the natural disaster, she said “there were a lot of them.”

For four weeks, from June 11 to July 11, Thornhill saw wandering animals, families without homes and people in physical and mental distress.

In what she called “organized chaos,” the nurse of 40 years worked from early in the morning to late in the evening supervising shelters and medical stations.

The area she supervised began in the center of the state and extended to the north and south and east borders and even two counties in Illinois.

Her responsibilities were to make sure that each area was adequately staffed with qualified people.

She said she also had to take care of anything that falls under the umbrella of health.

“We do basic health needs,” Thornhill said, like replacing medicine, glasses and even teeth.

She also watched over the shelters, which housed thousands of displaced people.

“In the town of Cedar Springs alone there were over 6,000,” she said.

Working sometimes for 12 hours, Thornhill had a lot to tend to.

“There were always problems either with clients or personnel,” she said.

Her nurses would get sick, or in one case, two of them had to be sent home because their California residences were threatened by wildfires.

As far as the clients, any medical ailment was a priority.

“You’re clients are very much in need,” she said. “We take care of their emergency basic needs.”

She said one of the most common problems the Red Cross clients face is gastrointestinal distress.

“Those (cases) were very common but its due to no privacy, different foods, the life that they’ve been pushed into,” she said.

Thornhill said it’s difficult to work so hard for so long.

“You run on adrenaline the first few days,” she said.

Once the adrenaline runs out, then the body has to adjust.

“Your body adapts to it because you know you have to,” she said. “But you have mental stress.”

In her line of work she can process those amounts of stress but for some it’s not so easy, she said.

That’s why usually volunteers will only stay out on assignment for three weeks.

By the time Thornhill left, she said 7,000 people had received Red Cross service and the organization had spent $10 million and was expecting to spend an additional $1 million.

The rebuilding process had begun and the FEMA trailers began rolling in

She said when the Iowa flooding became an emergency situation, she made herself available to volunteer.

Once she did, she had 24 hours to get to Iowa.

She traveled through the Red Cross travel agency and was able to book her flight.

“You pack and you’re on your way,” she said.

Thornhill has been on Red Cross’ disaster team since 1994 and has responded to 24 disasters.

She said she typically responds to one or two disasters a year.

Thornhill responded to Sept. 11, Hurricane George, the hurricanes in Florida in 2004 and worked in Natchez and Baton Rouge after Hurricane Katrina.

She said the Iowa flooding was nearly as devastating as that from Katrina.

“By having gone through Katrina, I could compare it to that and it was almost as bad,” she said. “The flooding was horrendous.”

Going out and helping those in need was rewarding to her, she said. Helping others is just her nature and always will be.

“Being a nurse for 40 years, I have always helped people and as long as I’m physically able and mentally capable, I’ll keep helping people,” she said. “If you give you will receive in the long run.

“And that’s what the Red Cross is all about.”