Oregon Red Cross Volunteers Deploy to Help 4,000 Displaced

When winter storms trapped thousands of families across the South, seven volunteers from Oregon and Southwest Washington grabbed their gear and headed out to help.

The American Red Cross is currently sheltering more than 4,000 people in 210 facilities from Texas to Virginia. Local volunteers from the Cascades Region are now on the ground helping with shelter operations, food distribution, and emergency supplies.

Four additional volunteers from Oregon and Southwest Washington are ready to deploy if needed. These everyday heroes are stepping up during one of the busiest disaster response operations this winter.

The extreme weather has created another urgent need closer to home. About 400 blood drives were canceled last month alone due to winter storms. That's three times more cancellations than the same period last year.

The Red Cross is facing a critical blood shortage, with a 35% drawdown of blood products in the past month. Hospitals are making difficult decisions about which patients receive transfusions first.

The Ripple Effect

Every volunteer deployment and blood donation creates a chain reaction of help. When one person gives an hour to donate blood, a trauma victim gets surgery. When a volunteer travels to shelter families, kids have a warm place to sleep and parents can focus on what comes next.

Paul Sullivan, senior vice president of Red Cross donor services, put it simply: "Every donation can be a lifeline for a patient who isn't able to hold off on critical care."

Oregon and Southwest Washington residents can help from home by making an appointment at RedCrossBlood.org. The need is especially urgent for platelets and O, A negative, and B negative blood types.

As a thank you, everyone who donates between January 26 and February 28 receives a $20 e-gift card to a merchant of their choice.

The Red Cross supplies about 40% of the nation's blood, serving 65 hospitals across the Pacific Northwest alone. With flu season compounding the shortage, regular donors are more important than ever.

Seven volunteers answered the call to help strangers hundreds of miles away, proving that compassion travels any distance.