The reason comes down to Houston’s guidelines, which are among the most stringent of Texas’ metropolitan areas, according to a review by the Houston Chronicle.
Houston opens its warming centers when the weather hits 24 degrees for two hours or more, or when there’s 15-degree windchill for two hours or more, a spokesperson for the city’s Office of Emergency Management said.
Meanwhile, most of the state’s major cities open their shelters at a threshold that’s several degrees warmer, when temperatures drop to around freezing.
We had a similar problem in Portland last year, not only with the stringent guidelines, but there was a deadline by which the call had to be made to open them or not.
So if you met the threshold, but after the 6 PM deadline, there wasn’t enough time to get the shelters open for when they’d do the most good.
Apparently opening a warming shelter involves prep work and if you don’t have the time to prep, it doesn’t open.
They probably knew a freeze was coming though, yeah? That’s the part, it shouldn’t be that strict and there should be more foresight.
Agreed, and if the freeze isn’t here yet, but will be at 11 PM, get those shelters open now!