Blood banks usually run low during the holidays because donors are busy with family and travel. This year, however, McMillan said blood banks had a good inventory of blood going into 1999. In spite of the surplus, many regions were hard hit by the severe weather.
Some regions are down to just half a day's supply of blood.
The Midwest and Northeast were the most severely affected by storms. People couldn't attend blood drives, and the storms made it impossible to ship blood in and out of some cities, McMillan said. In order to keep the system going, you need to replenish it every three to four weeks. When blood supplies drop critically in a region and there is no blood available in other parts of the country, hospitals may recommend patients postpone elective surgeries. Since severe weather may be starting up again, we are keeping a close watch on collection levels.