Cold weather is on its way to South Florida and the temperature changes will begin on Friday.
Everyone from Okeechobee County, Martin County to Palm Beach County will feel the chill in the air. Knowing what's at stake, plans are in place for shelters and warming centers to open this weekend.
Martin County works with three nonprofits in Stuart and they began planning a few days ago. Shelters are located at House of Hope, 2484 SE Bonita St.; LAHIA, 1760 SE Salerno Road and Salvation Army, 821 SE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. They are open Friday and Saturday with registration required Thursday.
"We don't have a high census during cold weather sheltering most years," Sally Waite, emergency management director of Martin County, said. "So, we usually see about 10 to 11. We have about 20 people registered."
People in Martin County don't have to bring their own bedding and food will be provided.
On the other end of the spectrum, Okeechobee County is opening a warming center in partnership with RiteLife at
202 NE 2nd Street, Suite 5.
"We can accommodate about 50 people throughout the day at the warming center," Denise Whitehead, with Okeechobee County, said. "Overnight shifts there will be about 30 people that can comfortably be in that warming center."
The center will be open at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Indian River County is working with the Salvation Army at 2655 Fifth St. SW in Vero Beach. A cold weather shelter will be open Friday and Saturday to serve 40 people.
Doors open at 5 p.m. each night and will close at 7 a.m. the following morning. There are tentative plans to open on Christmas Day if needed. And dinner will be served nightly.
In St. Lucie County, a shelter will open at Percy Peek Gym, 2902 Avenue D in Fort Pierce, on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m., county officials said. The shelter will be operated by In The Image of Christ in partnership with St. Lucie County and the City of Fort Pierce.
In Palm Beach County the opening of a shelter is determined on a daily basis.
"Our threshold for opening shelters is determined each and every day based on the forecast for any one particular day," Mary Blakene, director of Palm Beach County Division of Emergency Management said. "And our trigger thresholds are an ambient temperature of 40 degrees or less and or a windchill of 35 degrees or less for more than four hours."
In the event a shelter needs to be opened, the county could help at least a couple hundred people.
In the Palm Beach County, shelters, blankets and a warm meal will be provided.
In Okeechobee at the warming center, RiteLife has services that can help people who are struggling to pay their utilities.
