Thermostat set at 68 degrees, wool pants and a sweatshirt, a cup of hot chocolate and a blanket.
This scenario is only a dream for more than 500 people in the Columbus area.
“It only takes between 30 and 60 minutes to get frostbite in this kind of weather,” said NBC News Channel 4 meteorologist Jym Ganahl.
“By now people have made their decision to burrow or use shelters,” said Kent Beittel, CEO of the Columbus Open Shelter Inc.
The Open Shelter opens at 4:30 for people living off the land to sign in for the evening.
The homeless can have a meal, take advantage of hygiene and shower facilities and spend the night in a warm building.
Due to budget cuts last year the Open Shelter is not open 24 hours a day, but Thursday and Friday many volunteers took time off from their jobs to keep the shelter open all day because of the extreme temperatures.
“During the day they wander to the mall or the library and try to blend in and stay warm,” said Beittel
“We find them in abandoned buildings and campsites and bring them supplies every night,” said Rhonda Martin/Cage, a volunteer with Take it to the Streets.
Take it to the Streets does not have a facility instead volunteers take supplies to people on the street.
“We have seen an increase in people and we’re trying to get to all of them,” said Shelly Walker, spokeswoman for Take it to the Streets.
Cage spends her evenings supplying blankets, kerosene heaters, coats, hats and gloves to the homeless. Her parents, Harold and Ada Martin, founded Take it to the Streets.
“My father wants to make sure no one dies out there this year, last year we lost six or eight people and we don’t want that again,” she said.
The Open Shelter works with other shelters in the area.
“If they don’t get signed in with us for the night by five, they come in and eat and then go around the corner to Volunteers of America at 6:30p.m.,” said Beittel.
The capacity of the Open Shelter is for 95 people, however, before it got cold they were averaging 100 per night. The low temperatures have stretched the average nightly occupancy to 110 people.
“When it’s cold we have to know how far we can expand before jeopardizing any lives,” Beittel said.
Ohio has not seen a winter this cold since 1994.
Last winter ended with 33 days having temperatures over 50 degrees, Monday marked 19 days total with the high temperature under 30 degrees. Ohio is in the middle of a two-week period where the temperature is not expected to rise above 30 degrees.
“Siberian air is coming over the pole down onto us, but it’s much colder over there. At negative 40 degrees your spit freezes before it hits the ground,” said Ganahl.
In the last year 1,300 people have gone through the Columbus Open Shelter.
“When people don’t have an alternative, they put energy into staying alive,” said Beittel.
