Multiple clients at the Red Cross shelters Tammy Sullivan managed in South Carolina share the same story of wading in chest-deep water in the dark out of their apartment complex.
“How scary is that? It’s pouring rain, there’s no light, and they’re just trying to get to safety,” the Camas woman said Friday.
Sullivan, who is retired, added she stopped asking about it after a while, saying it’s a hard memory for her clients to relive.
More than 800 Red Cross workers, including Sullivan, have been dispatched to South Carolina since historic rainfall and flooding struck the state earlier this month. She’s expected to be back this week.
Sullivan was sent to South Carolina on Oct. 5, where she’s been working as a shelter manager in rural Clarendon County. Hundreds have been served at the two shelter locations where she’s worked, she said.
It’s her second national-level deployment. Her first was this summer, when she was sent to Warm Springs, Ore., to help with wildfire relief efforts.
At least 19 people have died in South Carolina from flooding or weather-related traffic crashes since Oct. 2, according to the Associated Press, after rising floodwaters followed days of heavy rains.
One night, more than a foot of rain fell on the city of Columbia, a few counties away from Sullivan, swamping buildings and vehicles and leaving hundreds in need of rescue.
The wire service reported 197 roads and 84 bridges around the state were still closed as of Wednesday morning.
State officials also told the news agency there have been 29 dam failures at sites across South Carolina, including one federally managed dam at Semmes Lake.
The weather was warm and the skies clear Friday afternoon, said Sullivan, who said she was standing out in a field for better cellphone reception.
When she and other volunteers arrived, they had to navigate around washed-out roads and bridges. When they had to pull over and ask people for directions, they were directed through fields and dirt roads.
The water in one river they crossed was so high it almost reached the bridge deck, she said.
Beyond running the shelters, she said, much of her work has been coordinating with local, state and federal agencies to match clients with services.
“We’re also providing emotional support and health services,” she said. “And then just basic comfort. Just walking around, talking to them. Just listening to their stories.”
A large portion of her clients all come from the same apartment complex, where they had to evacuate at night during the flood.
Finding housing for them and others has been tough, she said, because the area is so rural and services scarce, even before the historic storms. Many people in the shelter don’t have access to transportation.
Now that the crisis is over, the recovery phase is starting to take off, but Sullivan said the area still has a long way to go.
Friday was a good day, she said, because so many people were finding housing.
It’s been a learning process since her time in Warm Springs, she said. She called her current job a “field promotion.”
Sullivan said she had never been to the South, and gushed about the friendly culture. She said she never ate grits before, and is starting to pick up some local vernacular.
“All these ‘y’alls’ start to spit out from my mouth without me thinking,” she said. “I’m just going, ‘What did I say?’ “
