The week before, supplies at Shepeard Community Blood Center had dwindled to the bare minimum.

"We traditionally hold our biggest blood drive of the year on the Tuesday before Labor Day," said Nancy Szocinski, the director of community resources at Shepeard. "We usually get 350 to 400 good units out of about 500 donors. By Sept. 10 we were back in a shortage situation."

Then the unthinkable happened.

By the afternoon of Sept. 11, local blood banks, including Shepeard and American Red Cross Blood Services, had standing-room-only crowds waiting to donate.

"People wanted to do something to help but didn't know what to do," Ms. Szocinski said.

In the two weeks after Sept. 11, Shepeard collected more than 2,000 units. The story was the same at Red Cross Blood Services.

Nationwide, Red Cross collected 925,000 units within a week of the attacks.

While Sept. 11 marked the first surplus in a long time, the months following have seen a drastic decline.

When most of the donated blood expired in November, what was not used or frozen had to be thrown away. Replacing it has been difficult.

At local Red Cross Blood Services offices, the supply, which officials prefer to remain at a three-day level, has fallen to a one-day supply, according to site manager Pam Crail.

At Shepeard, which supplies four local hospitals, it's worse.

"For our standard three-day supply, we need to have 230 units of O positive blood. I have zero on the shelf now," Ms. Szocinski said. "We have no B negative or O negative blood right now (either)."

Despite recruitment efforts, even those who donated on or around Sept. 11 have been hard to contact.

"It's been very difficult to get those people back in," Ms. Szocinski said.

For many, rolling up their sleeves wasn't enough. Others opened their wallets, giving money to recovery and rescue efforts and families of the victims.

Augusta Mayor Bob Young announced a weeklong effort to raise $1 million, a fund-raiser that was more than successful.

A June 12 invoice shows the amount raised was $1,137,450.19, which was divvied between two funds.

The Sept. 11th Fund, for efforts in New York and Washington, received $885,448.51, and the Twin Towers Fund, developed for families of Trade Center victims, received $251,961.68.

"We've received a total of $185 million, and we've distributed $155 million of that," said Carolyn Cavicchio, deputy director of the Twin Towers Fund.

Officials for the Sept. 11th Fund said money donated shortly after the tragedy was included in the $301 million that has been donated for cash-assistance programs. The $175 million left over is mostly from donations made after January.

"It's the most incredible thing I've ever seen," said Lee Smith, the president and CEO of the CSRA Foundation, which operated the fund. "That horrible tragedy brought people together that had never given anything."

Reach Jennifer Hilliard at (706) 823-3223 or jennifer.hilliard@augustachronicle.com.