Area charities gear up for expected freeze

With Lynchburg expecting some of its lowest sustained temperatures since 2000, area charities are distributing higher than usual volumes of supplies, and shelters are preparing for additional company.

Meteorologist Jan Jackson, with the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, said Thursday night’s low temperature should hover around 10 degrees, with the projected wind chill bringing it to about five degrees.

Friday night, Jackson said, looks to bring temperatures as low as 3 or 4 degrees, with little wind chill factor.

Ismael LaBiosa, with Gleaning for the World, said the group distributed thousands of blankets and bottles of water Wednesday in preparation for the deep freeze.

“We haven’t had a really cold winter like this in a while,” LaBiosa said. “I think the needs change every year.”

Gleaning for the World distributed thousands of bottles of water, as well as blankets to area shelters Wednesday.

About 1,500 bottles of water and 200 blankets went to Lynchburg’s Daily Bread, on Clay Street.

“They actually went through everything we gave them,” LaBiosa said. “They went through that fast.”

Warren Lindsey, a shelter monitor at Lynchburg’s Salvation Army, said the shelter was housing 35 people Wednesday af-ternoon.

The shelter is built to house 42.

Most of the people who come to the shelter specifically because of bad weather, Lindsey said, don’t stay long, so the spike in occupants usually doesn’t last more than a few days.

“As weather warms up, they’re gone,” he said, adding that he’d like to see people stay around for longer in order to im-prove their situations.

“We don’t want to see anybody freeze to death out there,” Lindsey said.

Lindsey said the benefit of the Salvation Army is that the shelter is immediately ready to take in occupants.

“We’re an emergency shelter, so you can come right in,” he said. “We try our best not to turn anybody away.”

The last time the city managed single-digit temperatures in consecutive nights, Jackson said, happened in January of 2000, when the stretch of lows between Jan. 25 and 27 averaged about 5 degrees.