Hurricane aftermath leads to effort to donate blood

The relief efforts continue in New Orleans and many other coastal cities after Hurricane Katrina. With gas, water and electricity shut down, it’s starting to look more like a public-health nightmare, and Jan Twait at the Siouxland community Blood Bank in Sioux City says the storm wreckage in New Orleans is so serious, there’s a new health initiative taking shape. The American Association of Blood Banks, an international task force on domestic disaster, has determined there are going to be field hospitals on military ships set up at various locations in the south. While they always share supplies, she says the scope of the public-health disaster in gulf states is likely to have your local blood bank asking for more donors to step up. She says the department of defense is reviewing and may be activating all the blood centers around the country and giving them instruction how they’ll move blood into the affected area. Twait says most blood centers in the southern region has already shut down mobile collection vans by late last week. They called for help and this region sent a shipment then. She says they’ve already called again, and we’ve sent more this week. Twait says the local region will continue to share, “We believe it’s our responsibility, in case the need arises in our community — then we may be the recipient at some point.” She says it’s not for certain that every blood center’s inventory will be sent to the south. She can’t say when it’ll be sent but explains the blood needs to be collected, tested and on the shelf when the call comes. After several shipments already the center remains on call and she thinks everyone’s waiting for the military hospital ships to get into position and officials to determine how the plan will move forward. To help, find a place you can donate. Phone 1-800-give-life or surf to “give blood give life -dot-org.”