As deep freeze sets in, people in US urged to help most vulnerable

Chelse Volgyes clears snow from her car in Erie, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2017. Freezing temperatures and below-zero wind chills socked much of the northern United States on Wednesday, and the snow-hardened city of Erie, dug out from a record snowfall. (Photo by JACK HANRAHAN / Erie Times-News via AP)

PORTLAND, Maine — Dangerously cold temperatures and significant snowfall are setting in across half the country and officials are urging people to assist the homeless and elderly.

Forecasters warned people to be wary of hypothermia and frostbite from the arctic blast that’s gripping a large swath from the Midwest to the Northeast, where the temperature, without the wind chill factored in, dipped to –32°F (–35°C) Thursday morning in Watertown, New York. Temperatures rose to –7°F (–22°C) early Friday morning.

The prolonged, dangerous cold weather has sent advocates for the homeless scrambling to get people off the streets and to bring in extra beds for them. Warming centers also were set up in some locations including recreation centers across Cincinnati.

Boston‘s Pine Street Inn is sending a van with outreach workers around to persuade people to spend the night inside, but some said they prefer the streets.

Segundo Rivera and Sean Stuart told the Boston Herald that they’re not comfortable spending the night in a shelter.

“We’ve lived out here so long it’s like honestly, this is comfortable for us,” Rivera said.

A shelter spokeswoman said that if people didn’t want to go to a shelter, they would be given blankets, warm clothing and a hot beverage, and informed of the dangers of extreme cold.

The Ohio Department of Aging said older people are at increased risk from such severe cold, from medication side effects to falling risks. The department encouraged people to check on family members, friends and neighbors to make sure they’re warm enough and have their needed medications and sufficient food and water.

Animal advocates also urged people to remember their pets.

In Toledo, the humane society was looking into the death of a dog found “frozen solid” on a porch, cruelty investigator Megan Brown told The Blade.

“I don’t know how long she was out there,” Brown said.

A second dog was recovered shivering inside the home. The dogs’ owner told The Blade utilities that had been shut off but he had been providing for the dogs while living elsewhere. He said he didn’t know how one dog, an American bully, got outside.

On Thursday, cold weather records were set from Arkansas to Maine, and the freezing air will linger through the weekend, reaching as far south as Texas and the Florida Panhandle.

In New Hampshire, the cold set a record for the day of –34°F (–37°C) atop the Northeast’s highest peak, Mount Washington.

In the Midwest, temperatures in Minneapolis aren’t expected to top zero (–18°C) this weekend, and it likely will be in the teens (–11°C to –7°C) when the ball drops on New Year’s Eve in New York City.

A winter storm warning was in effect for much of Montana, calling for significant snowfall followed by dangerously cold temperatures as 2017 comes to an end.

“People like to think of themselves as being prepared for the weather and things like that,” Billings forecaster Dan Borsum said. “But this one will get your attention.”