COLUMBIA, S.C. — The American Red Cross has been assisting people who were impacted by Monday morning's severe storm.
Suspected tornadoes came through the Palmetto State causing many homes to be damaged by fallen trees. There's been several deaths reported across the state.
Some of the hardest hit areas in the Palmetto State include Oconee, Pickens, and Orangeburg counties.
The South Carolina Emergency Management Division says there were 290,000 outages at one point as a result of the storm. As of 4 pm Monday afternoon, there were still 109,000 outages.
Ben Williamson with the American Red Cross says with the coronavirus pandemic, it's changed the way they are helping people.
"There are multiple communities throughout this state that saw significant damage," said Williamson. "We would usually open a shelter but because of the current environment with COVID, we're not going to do that. We're working to identify some partner hotels, some hotels that will work with us so that we can get those folks that need some lodging."
Teams are now working on doing mobile damage assessments virtually or from their cars.
"Financial assistance is a big thing for us. We'll open cases with each family and help them out. Then also provide them with both disaster help and mental healthcare," explained Williamson.
The American Red Cross says although they may be operating a little differently, they are doing whatever they can to help those in need.
"This is unprecedented, the current time that we're living in but we're dedicated to serving and fulfilling our mission, even though that might look a little bit different."
The organization says they are now in need of financial and virtual volunteer help so they can assist more people. To find out how you can volunteer or provide help, click here.
