By Kate Fisher
Buffalo, NY – The American Red Cross is asking for more blood donations.
Officials say the winter storm that paralyzed the eastern seaboard has forced the Red Cross to cancel dozens of blood drives, leading to the loss of thousands of donations.
Locally, blood donations on Monday were almost cut in half because of the bad weather. Spokeswoman Marianne Humphrey said that's creating an immediate need.
"What we're trying to do is really build up a stable blood supply," Humphrey said. "Typically, we try to have a three day supply on hand, but now we want to build our support to have at least a seven day supply.
"That way, we can ship blood to anywhere there may be a large scale disaster or if we are called upon to supplement the military supply."
Right now, the Red Cross' New York-Pennsylvania region has a two-day supply available to the hospitals it serves.