Record lows prompt additional measures, vigilance from human-service providers
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Volunteers and patrons of the Produce to People program carry food out to vehicles in Tuesday’s frigid weather. The number of people who received food was much lower than usual due to the temperatures.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Patrons line up inside an exhibit hall at Washington County Fairgrounds to await food from the Produce to People program.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Volunteers portion out carrots into smaller bags that will be given to those picking up food Tuesday at Washington County Fairgrounds.
A fraction of the usual number of people made their way to Washington County Fairgrounds Tuesday to receive packages of produce and nonperishable food.
“I guess it makes a big difference because it’s cold,” said Patti Sabo, coordinator of the Washington location of Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank’s Produce to People program.
The low turnout that morning was one of the ways a wave of cold air that’s dropped temperatures to historic lows throughout much of the eastern and central United States is making itself felt locally, prompting organizations and agencies in the area that provide human services to take additional steps or remain vigilant.
Lee Hendricks, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, said area temperatures have been between 13 and 22 degrees below normal since Dec. 26.
Wind chill hasn’t been serious enough to trigger an advisory – which NWS officials issue for wind chill factors between 25 and 10 degrees below zero – but Hendricks expected the prolonged cold temperatures to pose a threat to anyone who’s homeless and unable to escape from the elements.
“If you have a short-duration cold period, some may tough it out,” Hendricks said. But when you have it seven days in a row here, it’s a little more serious than that.”
That’s the thinking behind faith-based nonprofit City Mission’s decision to open a warming center starting today at its Samaritan Care Center on West Wheeling Street in downtown Washington.
“People can die in this weather,” said Brian Johansson, the mission’s chief operating officer. “It’s very, very cold weather.”
He said the warming center will open from after breakfast until dinner every day “indefinitely until we see a change in the weather.”
The mission also opens a cold-weather shelter between October and April every year to give people a cot and a place to get out of the elements overnight from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
Johansson said more than 10 people in total have been staying each night at the warming shelter, in addition to the more than 100 people the group already houses.
“I think this year we’re seeing more folks than we have in the past,” Johansson said.
Greene County offers a similar service through its “warm nights” program, which allows people who call the Southwestern Pennsylvania Human Services Crisis Hotline to register to use the house-like structure at the county fairgrounds from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Clients must register by 4 p.m., and the center will be open only when it’s below 25 degrees and people have preregistered.
“The reason that they come does not mean they’re homeless,” said Amy Switalski, director of housing and family resources for the Greene County Department of Human Services. “It could literally just be a furnace.”
She said one family stayed there for about two weeks around Thanksgiving, “but other than that, it’s been sporadic.”
At Washington’s fairgrounds, volunteers distribute packages of food at the county fairgrounds in Chartiers Township one day every month – usually on the first Tuesday – from 10 a.m. to noon.
This month, heaters at the edges of the building were on along its perimeter, and a space heater and electric blanket were on hand in case anyone needed them. People normally line up outside until the hall’s doors open, but Sabo had them wait inside Tuesday.
Sabo said people had collected about 250 packages by 11:30 a.m. this time, compared to the typical 650 to 800 people Sabo said normally come.
“From what we normally have, we are at a trickle effect,” Sabo said.