Power outage barely slows La Grande blood drive, 240 units donated
A regional outage knocked out appointments, but La Grande still turned in 240 blood units. The haul comes as the Red Cross warns summer donations are sliding.
A regional power outage that hit Union County on Tuesday, June 16, left about 12,500 residents without electricity at one point, but it did not stop La Grande’s Red Cross community blood draw from finishing with 240 units of blood. Some donors had to shift plans, then return later, and the two-day drive at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 12th and Gekeler still produced a strong local supply for hospitals.
That matters because the American Red Cross says it distributes more than 6.4 million blood products each year to about 2,500 hospitals and other facilities, and it provides roughly 40% of the nation’s blood supply. The organization also says scheduled donations make up 90% of all blood donations, which is why a single disrupted drive can ripple beyond Union County and Northeast Oregon. In June, the Red Cross said scheduled donations had dropped sharply and the blood supply had fallen by several thousand units in just a week, keeping pressure on collection sites like La Grande.
The 240-unit total landed below some recent local draws, but it still fit a pattern of steady community participation. La Grande collected 285 units in March 2026, 248 units in June 2025 and 261 units in June 2024. The city’s community blood draws totaled 1,241 units in 2025, a number that shows how much the recurring drives contribute to the regional blood bank over the course of a year.
For donors in Union County and nearby Baker County, the next chances are already on the calendar. Baker City’s next community blood draw is set for Aug. 24 and 25, and La Grande’s next drive is scheduled for Sept. 15 and 16. Appointments can be made through the Red Cross appointment system or by calling Linda Strand at 541-910-1973, and donors can speed check-in by completing RapidPass before they arrive.
The June drive showed that even with a power outage and a disrupted schedule, La Grande’s donor network still delivered a meaningful haul when regional blood needs were urgent.
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