Portland has felt pretty balmy the past few day’s, but on the East Coast there’s a different story. This week, the area got walloped with a winter storm that forced hundreds of American Red Cross blood drives to be cancelled. This caused a shortfall of more than 8,000 blood donations in the southeast and northeast corners of the country.

Although Oregon and Washington aren’t in the affected area, because of the Red Cross blood service network, blood donors in the Pacific Northwest are in the position of being able to help.

There is a particular need for people with O-negative blood to give now. O-negative is the universal blood type which can go to any patient regardless of their blood type. O-negative blood is often used in emergency cases when doctors can’t wait to type a patient’s blood.

“The result of the cancellation of that many blood drives and consequently all those blood donations translates into as many as 24,000 blood products that we now do not have available for patients who may need them,” said Chris Hrouda, executive vice president, Red Cross Biomedical Services.

For more information, or to schedule your donation, please call 1-800-RED CROSS or visit redcrossblood.org.