Shelter demand continues as cold endures

Columbia has several shelters and warming centers open as arctic air continues to blanket the region.

Tuesday night, 15 people stayed at the Regional Economic Development, Inc. HUB offices downtown. That warming center will be moved to the Wabash bus station on Tenth Street downtown Wednesday night and will be open overnight.

The city of Columbia has a list of warming centers on its website which includes the Activity & Recreation Center and the public library.

Temperatures reached a dangerous low Tuesday night and bottomed out below zero across mid-Missouri. The air will stay cold through the night Wednesday with wind chill values in the negatives. These temperatures can cause frostbite and hypothermia.

Boone Hospital Center said it had not seen any weather-related deaths from this week’s dangerous cold snap. University of Missouri Health Vare reports less than five weather-related injuries in the past 24 hours.

Columbia Assistant Fire Chief Brad Fraizer, said Wednesday that he was surprised the department has not received any calls for weather-related injuries in the past 24 hours, but said preparedness may be one reason.

“It is interesting that we haven’t seen that many. There was such a heightened awareness that this was coming in advance,” he said.

Warming centers will continue to provide shelter for anyone in Columbia during the snow and freezing weather.