Red Cross: Blood Donations Thinning

Regional blood supplies are dipping as summer sets in, causing local blood banks to start offering incentives to potential donors.

Red Cross spokeswoman Marianne Spampinato says the regional chapter of her organization depends heavily on blood drives at colleges and high schools. She says while the national Red Cross gets 17% of its supply from those drives, the Pittsburgh region gets 25% of its supply from educational institution drives.

With those drives nonexistent in the summer, the Red Cross has started giving “ice cream incentives” to attract more donors, says Spampinato. Companies like Dairy Queen and Rita’s Italian Ice are giving donors coupons for free desserts to boost the blood supply.

Spampinato says while the Red Cross usually enjoys an emergency reserve of several days’ worth of blood, the current supply would last about one day.

The Red Cross spokeswoman says if blood supplies were to reach an extreme low, hospitals would probably postpone elective surgeries to maintain supplies for the people who need blood the most -- that is, patients with blood cancers, premature babies, and mothers who just gave birth.

Local Red Cross Volunteers Help in Alabama

The devastating tornadoes that hit the South Wednesday are now the second deadliest outbreak in U.S. history with 339 fatalities.
In 1925, 747 people were killed in a line of storms that ripped through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.
Emergency buildings are wiped out, and in one neighborhood, the storms even left firefighters to work without a truck.
Alabama suffered the most destruction from the tornadoes with at least 248 deaths. Alabama Governor Robert Bentley says 1,700 people were injured by the tornadoes.

The American Red Cross of Southwestern Pennsylvania has deployed 2 emergency response vehicles (ERV) and 4 volunteers to Hoover, Alabama to help victims of the storms. The volunteers, Phil Shumway of Carnegie, Tom Palmquist of Bethel Park, Kenneth Brown of Pleasant Hills and Carole Magargee of Greenville, Mercer County left last night and are driving the ERV's to Alabama. They will assist with the mobile feeding of victims. Their deployments are expected to last 2 to 3 weeks but the Red Cross says the ERV's could remain on site longer.

PGH Red Cross Helps Flood Victims

Two local Red Cross workers are in Tennessee this week helping with flood relief efforts. Renee Willow is the Red Cross Southwestern Pennsylvania Chapter volunteer coordinator. She arrived in Nashville last week and will remain on site until next week. Her role in Nashville is to process volunteers and then find places for them to serve. She says translators are in high demand but people with all skills are needed. “It is so exciting when they walk through that door and the match can instantly happen,” says Willow. She says the Red Cross can train anyone with an open mind and a willingness to work. Many of the volunteers are coming from local volunteers organizations but some are just walking in off the street from neighborhoods that have not been impacted by the flooding. Willow says the normal one-week Red Cross training is compacted into a day or less in an effort to get the volunteers out on the streets as soon as possible. Jobs ranging from welcoming other volunteers and staffing shelters and feeding centers to driving trucks and working on computer systems are being filled by volunteers that come past Willow’s desk. She says she remembers one woman who went through the training process and was put to work that same day, “She popped back into the office at the end of the day with a big smile on her face, thanked us for being able to utilize her and she would be back tomorrow.” Willow says that meant she was doing her job and the flood victims were getting the help they needed, “it was a good feeling.”

Evacuation Kits

During a major unexpected emergency, there's nothing like having pillows, cots and personal hygiene products for comfort. The American Red Cross is providing evacuation kits for evacuation teams in several communities with these necessities, thanks to an $80,000 grant from U.S. Steel. The company had given a grant before and is back to give a second installment. Each kit will contain a trailer of these items to provide for up to 100 people. Regional Red Cross Emergency Services Director Michael Adametz says these teams are great for the community, and they become vital in times of disaster. He says in 2004, when Hurricane Ivan affected many local communities, the American Red Cross had gotten about 40 requests for shelter and assistance in one evening. "We did not have the capacity to handle anything that grand of a disaster," he says. Now that this program is established, dealing with any kind of emergency event is much easier to handle.

Mayoral Emergency Declaration Forces Davis Avenue Bridge to Close

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl announced today a Declaration of Emergency was issued yesterday for the immediate demolition of the Davis Avenue Bridge on the North Side. The 110-year-old span connects the Brighton Heights neighborhood to Riverview Park and has been closed to vehicular traffic since 2001.

A structural engineering inspection and report issued by Michael Baker, Jr., the City’s engineering consultant, shows that the bridge is in danger of collapse. Four nearby homes have been identified as endangered, and residents have been recommended to vacate and relocate. The report also suggests the bridge be demolished as soon as possible.

Displaced families are being assisted with temporary housing through the City and the Red Cross.

Red Cross Worker Shares Tales from Thailand

It's been nearly three years since a devastating tsunami struck the southeast Asian country of Thailand, but recovery is still ongoing--at least according to American Red Cross Senior Field Representative for the Tsunami Recovery Program David Strobel. The tsunami, which has an estimated death toll exceeding 230,000 has left some communities still without basic amenities. David Strobel says the recovery effort is well underway, but that there are still improvements to be made. Some current programs in Thailand include a Water, Sanitation, and Health Promotion Project, Community-Based Health Project, and a Disaster Preparedness Project.

Strobel also saw action in response to the May Cyclone Nargis disaster in Myanmar/Burma whose devastation has left an estimated 140,000 dead. He helped organization deployment of disaster response volunteers amidst Myanmar moratorium on visas. The Pittsburgh native will spend some time in the city over the course of August and then return to Thailand where he spends 11 months out of the year.