The City of Edmonton has activated it’s extreme weather response to help keep vulnerable Edmonton residents safe during the cold weather. The response is targeted to end on Thursday, January 18th at Noon.
The threshold for activating the City’s extreme weather response is a temperature of -20 degrees Celsius with wind chill for at least three consecutive nights. Open City facilities such as recreation centres and libraries will be available during regular hours of operation for anyone to get out of the extreme cold and warm up.
There will be “Extreme Weather Bus Routes” operating from 11pm-5:30am, the routes can be found on the Edmonton website.
Fifty temporary shelter spaces will open Monday night at the City-funded Al Rashid Mosque in North Edmonton from 5pm-9am. The Bissell Centre and Boyle Street Community Services will also operate multiple day services.
If anyone is looking to help the city is offering a few tips on what you can do:
- Learn to recognize the signs of hypothermia: uncontrollable shivering, drowsiness or exhaustion, confusion, fumbling hands, memory loss, or slurred speech; a person with severe hypothermia may be unconscious and may not seem to have a pulse or to be breathing.
- Call 911 for someone in serious distress or in cases of emergency.
- Call 211, press 3 for 24/7 Crisis Diversion non-emergency support for shelter, intoxication and mental health.