CHESNEE, S.C. (WCBD) – People who have lived in the Charleston area since 1989 know what it’s like to go through a major disaster. When it’s needed most, people come together to help one another. When our neighbors in South Carolina’s upstate saw destruction from Hurricane Helene, and the days-long power and water outages, we […]
CHESNEE, S.C. (WCBD) – People who have lived in the Charleston area since 1989 know what it’s like to go through a major disaster. When it’s needed most, people come together to help one another.
When our neighbors in South Carolina’s upstate saw destruction from Hurricane Helene, and the days-long power and water outages, we knew we needed to do something to help.
Almost immediately after the storm News 2 put out a call to folks in the Lowcountry to donate what they could for storm victims through a hurricane relief drive thanks to a relationship with UNITS Moving and Portable Storage.
For three days last week, one after another people arrived at News 2’s studio in Mount Pleasant with essential items ready to be shipped to those in need. Four UNITS were filled and shipped to Chesnee, South Carolina to support many of the small towns.
“When we weighed all of the containers, the weight of the donations collected was approximately 75,000 lbs. So, in total about 37.5 tons of donations were collected and shipped to Chesnee,” said Bryan Hoffman, national director of marketing for UNITS.
“You know, I’m 75 years old and never seen anything like this,” said Chesnee Mayor Bruce Mahaffney.
From Charleston to Chesnee, thank you, Lowcountry, for all the donations you brought to our station for storm victims. We followed the trucks all the way Upstate to Chesnee First Baptist on Wednesday morning for distribution.
Mayor Mahaffey said it was great seeing communities coming together.
“Chesnee came together. The people came together. And it was just it was like everybody was brother and sister,” he said. “Seeing all this coming … almost brought tears to my eyes. You know, seeing people from other parts of the state coming in to help a little town like Chesnee.”
About 100 people gathered at Chesney First Baptist early Wednesday morning to unload units, organize the supplies, and then distribute them across our area.
“Like a relief that I knew somebody else realized what we needed here, that it wasn’t just our community coming together,” said one volunteer. “It was another community coming to us, too.”
Thousands of essential items donated by caring people of the Lowcountry now going to people who need them most.
News 2 will continue to collect items at our station, 210 W. Coleman Boulevard, through the end of the week. Items can be dropped off at the storage UNIT from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.