Over 850 people in need use Austin's cold weather shelters during winter storm
Record breaking weekend for cold weather shelters
With the winter storm now behind us, Austin city officials are saying they received a record-breaking amount of people at cold weather shelters over the weekend.
AUSTIN, Texas - With the weekend winter storm now behind us, Austin city officials are claiming they received a record-breaking number of people at their cold weather shelters.
What they're saying:
"At our peak, we saw over 850 clients using our cold weather shelter operation, which is an all-time record for the City of Austin," says David Gray, director of Austin Homeless Strategies and Operations.
With temperatures dipping below 20 degrees over the weekend, droves of people flocked to the One Texas Center on Barton Springs Road for warmth.
The building acts as a registration point for clients, who are then transported to warming shelters across the city. Gray told FOX 7 that for some, making it to the One Texas Center made the difference between life and death.
"We had a guy who came in who literally couldn't move parts of his body. They were frozen in place. And our staff had to work with him and work with EMS to help him warm up, begin to move those limbs again, get him talking. And after about 15 minutes, they were able to get that man talking and ultimately get him into a hospital," Gray said.
Winter weather: Person found dead from hypothermia in Austin
Officials say a person was found dead in North Austin reportedly due to the winter weather conditions.
But not everyone was able to make it to the city’s cold weather shelters. Early Sunday morning, a body was found near a North Austin gas station. In an online post, Mayor Kirk Watson said the cause of death was believed to be hypothermia.
"Every time we have a client who passes away, it breaks our hearts. It's devastating," says Gray.
Officials said 850 people arrived at the One Texas Center. Multiple locations had to be opened across the city in order to meet the high demand.
"On a typical cold weather shelter activation, we'll open between two or three sites. For this activation, we had seven," says Gray.
To keep those locations supplied and clients fed, the Central Texas Food Bank stepped in to provide support. The nonprofit worked to provide meals from scratch to four of the city’s warming shelters as they waited out the storm.
"As of tomorrow morning (Tuesday), we will have served more than 5,000 meals at those locations," says Beth Corbett, the VP of Government Affairs and Advocacy for the Central Texas Food Bank.
Preparation for the winter weather happened long before it ever made its way to the region.
"So the kitchen is, days in advance, if not weeks in advance, making sure we have those meals ready to heat and deliver," says Corbett.
Austin’s overnight cold weather shelters will continue 24 hours until Wednesday morning and will resume normal CWS operations Wednesday evening.
Registration happens every evening from 6 to 8 p.m. at the One Texas Center at 505 Barton Springs Road.
The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin's Marco Bitonel