As the charred and ruined visages of disaster unraveled hundreds of miles to the north, students and Charlottesville residents waited in long lines. In blood lines.
Outside the American Red Cross on Rose Hill Drive off Preston Avenue, a line of potential blood donors curved through the parking lot to the edge of the street.
"I heard about the blood drive from some of my friends," fourth-year College student Lori Bates said. "It was a tangible thing we could do."
Susan Dunn, public support director at the Central Virginia Chapter of the American Red Cross, estimated that the Rose Hill office collected between 200 and 300 units of blood yesterday.
In order to gather more blood at a faster pace, all Red Cross blood drives will be consolidated into specified central Virginia sites tomorrow through Saturday. However, students also can give blood through the Virginia Blood Services.
The Red Cross will be at the Spotsylvania Mall in Fredericksburg from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday.
On Friday, Red Cross staff from other regions will stage a massive blood drive at the Cage at University Hall from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. All Saturday, the Red Cross will be at the Convocation Center at James Madison University from noon to 6 p.m.
An e-mail sent last night from University President John Casteen III and Student Council President Abby Fifer said that buses will take students to today's Virginia Blood Services drive at Fashion Square Mall.
The buses will depart today from the front of Peabody Hall on McCormick Road on the hour from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. They will return on the half hour until 7:30 p.m.
Yesterday, however, students and residents waited in line for hours to register to donate.
"At first I didn't think that I could do anything," first-year College student Evan Wolfe said. "I thought 'Hey, we're in Virginia, what help can we provide?' but then I realized that we can do something."
Others volunteered their time to help run yesterday's drive. Former Red Cross volunteers, University medical students, housewives and mothers supplemented the Rose Hill office'snormal staff of eight, bringing yesterday's staff total to 50.
The American Red Cross provided the first humanitarian relief response after yesterday's attacks, Dunn said. Their emergency response teams formed shelters and consisted of case workers, doctors and nurses.
Dunn's office received a call at approximately 8:55 a.m. yesterday to begin blood drive mobilization efforts.
Blood banks across America sent their available blood supplies to New York City and Washington, D.C., yesterday morning. The blood collected today will constitute "the second wave of emergency response," Dunn said.
"We're talking about an affected area of 10,000 to 100,000 people," she said. "This is the kind of response you would see for a national or international war. This is just unprecedented. You don't normally see these kinds of numbers."
Dunn estimated that Red Cross relief efforts will cost anywhere from $20 to $50 million. Those figures will cover shelters, medical services and blood services.
While Dunn's first thoughts when she heard of the attacks were of her professional responsibilities, the event also impacted her personally.
"On a personal note, I was shocked," Dunn said. "I mean we're talking about something that could take anywhere from 10,000 to l00,000 lives. And we're talking about the effect on families and friends of these individuals -- it could reach millions. And that's just something you don't think of on American soil."
National and area businesses also contributed to yesterday's efforts. Domino's and Papa John's sent over free pizzas for donors to snack on and Coca-Cola and Pepsi donated beverages.
"They heard about it on the radio and wanted to step forward to provide assistance," Dunn said. "You'd be amazed what the American public will do."
In addition to attending the blood drive, Bates and her housemates did what they could fromtheir own home.
"This afternoon we gathered in one of our friend's rooms and we prayed for half an hour for God to work in the midst of this," she said. "I have faith that he will."
(Cavalier Daily Associate Editor Julie Hofler contributed to this report.)
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