The American Red Cross is recovering from a shortage in blood donations after last week's winter weather.
In fact, the organization reported it missed out on an estimated 37,000 units of blood nationwide. Red Cross spokeswoman Maya Franklin said many of the organization's blood drives are at high schools and colleges, which were closed for up to three days last week across North Carolina.
"Because of the winter weather, we were forced to cancel several of those," she said. "A total of 46 drives were canceled and that results in a total loss of 1,652 units of blood lost."
There is a near constant need for donated blood. The Red Cross estimates that some 44,000 unites of blood are needed every day, and the organization supplies about 40 percent of that need.
"So that's 14,000 pints of blood that we want to collect every single day," said Franklin.
