Courtesy: WFSB
RUTLAND, Vt. -
At a blood drive Thursday, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger rolled up his sleeves to give.
"It really seems like right now the biggest thing we can do and the best way we can help our neighbors to the south is to give blood and give donations to the Red Cross," Weinberger said.
Due to Sandy, 360 blood drives along the eastern seaboard were canceled. Red Cross officials say that means 12,000 fewer donations than expected and the demand for blood is dire. The Mayor is encouraging all city officials to donate. "I think as things emerge in the next couple weeks there will be other needs and we will help if we can," he said.
But for now, he said focusing on the blood supply is a good start. Another pertinent need for those south of our region is electricity. Thursday morning a contingency of Green Mountain Power crews hit the road to help those still in the dark. "In these events customers are without power. It's just before winter -- I mean the temperatures are getting cold, they're without heat down there. It's very important for us to help them. In turn, someday, we may need the help," said GMP's Chris Gandin.
Gandin and 70 other GMP crews are headed to Connecticut. They'll be assisting Connecticut Light and Power. According to the utilities outage map, 19-percent of their region or 240,000 customers are still without power.
"We packed for nine or ten days, but we were told plus, so we're not really sure of a return date. We'll stay as long as we can and still be able to maintain service to our customers here in Vermont," Gandin said.
GMP says as Connecticut customers get plugged back into their power, the GMP crews will be ready to deploy elsewhere as needed.
