DeKalb County warming centers serve more than triple amount of people helped this time last year

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - DeKalb County Emergency leaders say they’re going to be sheltering hundreds of people in county warming centers Saturday.

DeKalb County’s Emergency Management Director Joseph Cox said they’ve been preparing resources and partners for cold spells like this since September.   

Steady winds brought temperatures in Metro Atlanta to feels-like single digits Saturday.

Related: Weather in Atlanta: When will the bitter cold wind chill end?

Meanwhile, Frontline shelter on Gresham Road in East Atlanta was keeping people warm inside.   

"It’s all hands on deck," said Frontline’s Development Director Kimberly English.

She told FOX 5 that some clients the shelter was serving Saturday told her that they credited the warming center with saving their lives.  

"One of the individuals that I talked to, I just asked him how he was doing, and he just said, ‘Miss Kimberly, if it weren't for you guys, I probably would have froze to death,’" she said.   

Frontline is one of eight locations DeKalb County has tapped to be a warming center during this weekend’s extreme cold.   

English says they housed around 125 people on Saturday, when their normal capacity is around 100.    

As more show up, they’re having to bus them to other warming centers that have more vacancies.  

"Not only can [the wind chill] cause injury to those who are exposed to it, hypothermia, but also can cause death," Cox said.   

He said between all the county’s shelters, they estimate they will have sheltered around 400 people Saturday into Sunday.    

Cox says the county activates shelters when the wind chill will be below 35 degrees and typically at a "Level 2" Activation, which means they’re open overnight from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.  

But for Saturday’s cold, he says they’ve had to up their activation.   

"We’ve had to up our readiness to a ‘Level 1,'" Cox said. "This will be our third Level 1 Activation."

That means warming centers are now open 24 hours.

Cox says they are having to activate these resources a lot more this winter season as compared to the last one.   

"We have had 40 activations. Last year, the whole winter season we only had 39 warming center activations and we've served over 5,000 citizens up to this point. Last year, the entire season, we served up to 1,500 citizens," he said.   

There’s still several weeks of winter left to go, but Cox says they’re ready.   

"Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. And your county is constantly planning," he said.

English said Frontline could really use more volunteers and supplies to help during this extreme cold weather activation.

You can help them out here.