Photos: House Flooding Retold at Assistance League Luncheon

During the 23rd annual Christmas Tree Luncheon of the Assistance League of Saddleback Valley, a Lake Forest woman shared  last December.

Kathy Wright, 58, is a retired bus driver who suddenly went from zero children to three last November. A family member stopped caring for them, and she became the guardian of a 4-year-old, a 7-year-old and an 8-year-old on Nov. 20.

"They came to me with matted hair, smoke-filled lungs," she said.

A month later, while staying with a friend in the canyons, Wright found herself struggling to save all their lives as a flooded creek drenched their home.

She recalls the moment, around 3 a.m. Dec. 22, when she knew their lives were threatened by the water.

"It sounded like Niagara Falls in my home," she said. "I started screaming."

Within 10 minutes the water was up to her neck, she said. She found her two new daughters floating on their mattress near the ceiling.

"Our animals were literally floating by," she said. "I just didn't even know what to do."

As food from the kitchen and the neighbors' furniture floated around her, Wright grabbed the kids. She put them in the highest, safest spot she could find--a crawlspace in the attic.

Soon firefighters arrived and the new family was free from the flooded home. But all they had left were the soggy clothes on their backs, Wright said.

"They had no Christmas," she said. "I had no home. It's humbling and devastating, and it makes you feel less than--even though you know it's not your fault."

The Assistance League stepped in when the kids headed back to school. The charity gave each one clothes and a $100 shopping spree. About two months later they gave the kids another shopping spree to help get them back on their feet.

Wright said her family is still struggling, but the help from the League helped them restore their dignity.

Soon after Wright told her story, the crowd of roughly 300 gave $30,000 to the League, which was matched in kind by vendors. Although final numbers aren't available, the League hopes to surpass their take-in last year, which was $125,000.