San Diegans Roll Up Sleeves to Help Quake Victims

Within an hour of the earthquake that hit the San Francisco Bay Area late Tuesday afternoon, the San Diego Blood Bank had packed 50 units of blood platelets onto a Greyhound bus headed north.

By noon Wednesday, 100 people here had rolled up their sleeves and were donating fresh blood to the victims in Northern California.

“I’ve seen a lot of first-time donors here today,” said Lynn Stedd, a spokesperson for the local blood bank. “I’ve seen families. I’ve seen mothers and children, relatives coming in together. I’ve seen longtime volunteer donors, even a 25-gallon donor came down.”

But Stedd particularly remembered the elderly woman who stopped by.

“She made her first blood donation,” Stedd said. “She just felt like she was trying to contribute to the community.”

Blood donors, charitable organizations, utility workers and the military--all types of San Diego people and groups began pitching in Wednesday to send manpower and supplies to help the recovery in the Bay Area.

By this morning, as many as 100 Navy Seabees and civilian employees from various San Diego bases are expected in the Bay Area to help with repairs on military installations, Mike Stuart, commander of naval base operations in San Diego, said.

Besides manpower, San Diego’s Navy bases are sending equipment and supplies. Those items are being transported by truck convoys and airlift. Additional Seabees and civilians could be sent later in the week, once officials learn how badly the Bay Area bases are damaged.

Paul Revier, communications director for the Salvation Army in San Diego, said his organization is sending vehicles filled with bottled water, blankets and emergency cots.

Al Davis, a senior vice president at San Diego Gas & Electric Co., said the utility is dispatching as many as 30 employees to help repair the natural-gas distribution network in the Bay Area.

“You’ve got lines that are broken and customers who have turned off their gas,” he said.