Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Inside This Issue Today s Weather t EtCetera reviews Vanilla ___ Ice This Week; Higlis in the mid 90s with isolated PAGE 7 thunderstorms. .. """" 1 .a.m .IBHHB.■■■■■■ —.—....... vol. 93, no. 95 University of South Carolina www.gamecock.sc.edu Cold water, hot work. Sean Rayford Photo Editor A USC worker, who calls himself only Mr. Coleman, guzzles water (left) after he and co-workers spread concrete in the searing Columbia summer heat laying down a sidewalk in front of the recently created “green space” on Greene Street (right). Blood drive aids S.C. shortage by Chris Shurburtt Staff Writer For three days during the week of July 10, the Russell House Ballroom played host to a blood drive for the Amer ican Red Cross that gave the USC com munity a chance to contribute to the blood-shortage problem being experi enced this summer in South Carolina. The Columbia area is home to sev eral large hospitals that provide unique services to all citizens of South Caroli na. Magdelena DuSaint, a Red Cross nurse working at the USC blood drive, said that this makes the shortage even more of a problem in the capitol city. “Columbia is begging for blood,” Du Saint said. But a blood shortage during the sum mer months is common, DuSaint said. One reason is a higher number of ac cidents due to an increased number of people outdoors and traveling. Over the July 4th weekend, 22 people died in au to accidents in South Carolina. Many trauma units in hospitals were busier than usual. “With kids being out of school and more people being on the roads, people are more accident prone,” said Nakia Mc Cleary, a nurse for the Red Cross at the USC blood drive. The Columbia office takes in 120,000 units of blood per year with about 80,000 individuals donating. McCraney added that the annual USC-Clemson blood drive brings in 250 BOO units per day from each university. The Red Cross relies on blood drives at schools to help bolster their supply. “Schools are home to a large con centration of healthy people,” said Sharon McCraney, senior director of donor re sources at the Red Cross regional office in Columbia “Also, it is very cost effi cient for us to collect at schools.” At USC, there are enough students enrolled in summer classes, faculty and staff to make a blood drive effective. However, summer blood drives do not occur at smaller colleges or high schools, because of fewer donors. The higher number of accidents dur ing the summer months, coupled with schools being closed puts a strain on the availability of blood from the Red Cross. Even though we have had a 3 per cent increase in blood donations com pared to the summer of 1999, we have experienced hospital distribution in creasing 5.8 percent from a year ago,” McCraney said. “We are now down to a half-day supply of O-positive so distrib ution is being handled on a day to day ba sis across my region.” Blood donated in South Carolina goes to help patients in South Carolina hos pitals first. After the need in the Palmetto state has been satisfied, the blood is then made available to those in need across the country. According to McCraney, the blood is collected from across her region and sent to Columbia, where it is processed into components for specific needs, and then it is distributed to hospitals in need. It our supply exceeds demand, then it is eligible to be shared,” McCraney said. However, DuSaint said there are places that have a greater need than South Carolina “Baltimore, Md. has put out a na tion-wide alert for blood,” said DuSaint. “They are in very dire straits in Balti more.” The Columbia office contributes blood to hospitals throughout the mid lands, lowcountry and Pee Dee of South Carolina, and Augusta, Ga Areas served include Charleston, Blood seepages Columbia, USC face fire safety concerns by Jennifer Carter Staff Writer An apartment fire that took the life of a Columbia woman June 25 has brought the issues of fire safety and pre vention to the attention of many Co lumbia residents. The fire, which happened at the Tamarind Apartments off Greystone Boulevard, has also raised concern among firefighters that people are not as well informed as they should be about how to protect themselves from fire. The Columbia Fire Department lias seen an increase in the number of home and apartment fires in the last year, par ticularly in the more recent months, ac cording to Columbia fireman and cur rent Public Fire Education Officer Robert Amick. Amick said they are also see ing a shift in the age of people who are aware of fire safety. In the past, children and the el derly have been more prone to fire in juries, but in recent years middle age people have been in more danger,” Am ick said. “This can be attributed to ex tensive education programs in schools that have heightened children's aware ness of fire safety, as well as increased education programs for the elderly, such as speakers at meetings of the Ameri can Association of Retired People." About 85 percent of home and apart ment fires are electrical, Amick said. While electrical fires aren't preventable, there are precautions to ensure safety in the event of one. “It's very important to check for safety features before renting a home or apartment,” Amick said. “You should have at least two means of easy escape, firewall protection between each apart ment, working smoke detectors and sprinklers.” Some apartment complexes are not equipped with sprinkler systems, since such systems are not required by law in residential buildings. But Amick Fire seepages