The Red Cross is asking for blood donations to support people impacted by Hurricane Debby.
The Category 1 storm hit Florida and the Carolinas in early August.
Thanks to a new blood reserve system, donations from all corners of the country can more quickly contribute to disaster relief.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Debby, the American Red Cross has warned that the country is in a blood shortage.
The storm tore through the southeast, and now disaster relief services are asking people around the country to donate at local blood centers to help meet their needs.
The Community Blood Center in Appleton was able to help meet the need right away. That’s because three years ago, it joined forces with other blood centers across the country to create the nation’s first ever Blood Emergency Readiness Corps.
John Hagins is the President and CEO of the Community Blood Center, which supplies blood to hospitals in the Northwoods.
“What we really needed, as far as a network, was the ability to respond very quickly when an emergency arose, and the best way for us to do that was to pool our resources so that not each one of us had to be prepared for every emergency,” explained Hagins.
The way it works is participating blood centers have committed to collecting extra units of blood on a rotating “on call” schedule so that there is always an available supply for emergency needs. Over 40 centers across the country participate.
Hagins says it has shortened emergency response times.
“It allows that blood center to react and focus on that particular emergency, and again, deplete, maybe their reserves a little bit lower than they would do normally, knowing that they're going to be backfilled from some of their brother and sister blood centers around the US,” he said.
However, the system only works when people regularly donate blood and platelets.
“We run into situations, particularly in the summer, where our local blood reserves have gotten very low, and we've had to appeal to the general public to donate blood at that point in time,” he said.
Hagins encourages everyone eligible to make an appointment to donate today.
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
