HENRIETTA, N.Y. -- The American Red Cross has an urgent need for blood and platelet donors, made more critical by a freezing cold January and the flu going around. It's normally a difficult time of year for blood donation levels, but these factors resulted in lots of cancelled donations.

The Red Cross is barely keeping up with demand, as blood and platelets are sent out to hospitals faster than donors are walking in.

"The thing is, you never know when you are going to need a blood transfusion. One car accident victim can need up to 100 units of blood," said Patty Corvaia, American Red Cross.

The Red Cross collects and processes every blood donation from across the state in Henrietta and then distributes the blood to 90 hospitals across the state and 10 counties in Pennsylvania. The coolers here are usually packed with blood supplies.

"Right now, we are down more than 16,000 units of blood throughout the country. In New York State, we had to cancel about 15 blood drives and that is a loss of hundreds of units," Corvaia said.

There are several blood drives scheduled through mid-February in just about every town in every county across the state.