As Calgary remains under an extreme cold warning, local agencies are stepping up to help the city’s most vulnerable.
The Salvation Army has a mobile warming station where people can get coffee, food and, most importantly, warmth.
“We give out basic needs. A lot of folks come in with inappropriate winter gear,” said Hooria Ansari, team lead for the warming initiative.
The station, which is made up of a tent with chairs and propane heaters inside, travels to different places around the city each day to help make the frigid temperatures a little more bearable.
On Wednesday morning, it was set up at the Sunalta CTrain station.
“Sunalta is probably one of the busier locations that we’ve been visiting with our warming stations. Folks are trying to get warm anywhere, anyhow, any way that they can,” Ansari said.
Staff with the Salvation Army can also arrange transportation to a nearby shelter for those interested.
“We think it’s a great idea and a really innovative way to address the need in the city of Calgary, where we can go to folks needing support, needing warmth, needing engagements of any kind as opposed to them coming to us,” Ansari said.
Alpha House Society is also helping get people off the street. Its shelter has a capacity of 120, but during extreme cold warnings, it often goes over that.
“We know it’s not ideal to have more folks in the shelter than we have capacity for, but we know the exposure to the elements is the greater risk at that time,” said Shaundra Bruvall, communications and program manager at Alpha House Society.
“We will work with the other shelters in the city to make sure that there’s space for an individual who’s wanting to come inside, but we wouldn’t turn anybody away.”
Alpha House also has its Downtown Outreach Addictions Partnership, known as the DOAP Team.
It does patrols around the city 24/7, offering transportation and crisis support for those dealing with addiction issues.
The team also ensures people in need have a warm, safe place to stay.
“It’s extremely important for us to be able to connect with them wherever they’re at to just even help them take a break from the cold, whether that’s just even for a couple hours so that they can just regroup, gather some supplies before they’re heading back out,” Bruvall said.
On days like this, frostbite can occur within five to 10 minutes of being outside.
Calgary EMS has received five cold weather calls since Sunday, but that number is expected to go up even more as the cold snap continues, according to Shane Paton, acting education officer.
“If you start noticing blisters and the blackening, definitely you want to seek medical attention. If it’s just some reddening, the pins and needles, generally moving to a warm environment and just letting them warm up on their own will do the trick.”
Paton recommends people spend as little time outside as possible and wear layers if they do need to go out.
ELECTRICITY USAGE UP
As people spend more time indoors, it also means a higher demand for electricity.
The Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) said a new hourly record of 12,187 megawatts was set between 5 and 6 p.m. Tuesday night.
That’s about 150,000 more households than the previous high of 11,939 megawatts set in January.
AESO is asking people to reduce their electricity use, especially during peak hours between 4 and 7 p.m., to help relieve pressure on the grid.
“When we’re in periods of extreme cold, furnaces are running harder, people are plugging in their vehicles – all of that really pushes the grid or presents a strain on the grid,” said Leif Sollid, communications and stakeholder relations manager for AESO.
“So, if people can hold off running their dishwasher and dryer until after that 7 p.m. period, that just helps bring down the overall peak demand.”
AESO said people can also minimize the use of space heaters, use cold water for washing clothes instead of warm, delay charging electric vehicles or plugging in block heaters and cook with their microwave, crockpot or toaster instead of the stove.
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