San Jose Mercury News: "It's freezing -- but is it cold enough for emergency shelters?"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

It's freezing -- but is it cold enough for emergency shelters?

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_16705918?nclick_check=1

By Mark Gomez and Bruce Newman

Mercury News

Posted: 11/24/2010 06:28:23 PM PST
Updated: 11/24/2010 06:45:22 PM PST

How cold was it San Jose? Try 35 degrees, but nowhere near record. With temperatures dipping dangerously low, the situation had all the makings of an especially cold Thanksgiving for the homeless of Silicon Valley.

On Monday, the National Weather Service forecast a low of 32 degrees -- officially freezing -- in San Jose for Thursday morning. But it took another two days before administrators of Santa Clara County's cold-weather shelters and county officials roused the bureaucracy to declare a weather emergency. On Wednesday night, they were finally breaking out the blankets at one of the county's cold weather shelters, and preparing to open another tonight.

The cold-weather shelters traditionally open their doors on the Monday after Thanksgiving to provide warm beds and hot meals for some of the estimated 7,000 homeless people in the county. And, in anticipation of frigid temperatures, the agency that runs the three shelters, EHC Lifebuilders, decided to open its Boccardo Reception Center at 2011 Little Orchard Street in San Jose ahead of schedule on Wednesday afternoon.

But on Wednesday morning, officials were still saying the 250 beds at National Guard Armories in Gilroy and Sunnyvale would be off limits until next week, because no one had yet deemed it cold enough to swing the doors open early.

[glitch]

1. Empathy is being weeded out in our "homeland". nt

[geckosfeet]

2. 32 is frigid? I suppose it's relative.

[ShamelessHussy]

3. thats the freezing point for water

cold enough

[frylock]

5. ice is frigid..

last I checked.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

4. 32 is frigid for Californians

As I posted elsewhere earlier today, I grew up in Massachusetts (moved to CA when I was 16) and so I knew sub-zero temperatures.

But in California, particularly Silicon Valley, where it might get into the 40s during the most brutal of winters, 32 is pretty damned frigid, and unusual.

[CreekDog]

12. it's frigid to sleep outside when you're homeless

doesn't really matter where you grow up.

[Fumesucker]

6. You sleep outside? In just what you can carry around with your hands?

There's people that don't even have a decent coat let alone a place to keep warm while they sleep.

[Gormy Cuss]

7. It is if you're sleeping outside without rated camping gear. n/t

[geckosfeet]

16. Rated camping gear? Do the eskimos or American indians run out and buy rated camping gear

when temps dropped below 0 - not below freezing - below 0?

Mind you I am all for opening shelters - just pointing up that human beings can survive quite well in temps well below freezing for extended periods - without running to REI and spending $1500.

[Gormy Cuss]

19. Many of the people sleeping outside in San Jose aren't prepared for subfreezing temps.

Inuits and other people living in climates where winter is cold aren't the topic of discussion here.

And for the record, gear rated for low temps in the 20s can be had for a couple of hundred bucks because that's not cold enough to require winter gear. The reason I qualified it as rated camping gear was to forestall the argument that some street people have sleeping bags and blankets and therefore should be A-okay.

[geckosfeet]

20. Just pointing out some facts. Sorry if it's 'off topic'.

[Retrograde]

25. Actually, they did have specialized gear

The Inuit used technology developed over generations to be able to live in Arctic conditions: fur-lined clothing, waterproof gear make of seal and fish parts, goggles to protect their eyes from snow-blindness, specialized gear for traveling, shelters that could be constructed quickly when needed - read "Scott and Amundsen" (also published as The Last Place on Earth) for a description of the native technology that proved superior to anything Europeans had for polar life at the time.

In the Bay Area, the original inhabitants were semi-nomadic and moved closer to the bay in the winters to be in the warmest spots they could find. And they built shelters furnished with mats to keep them off the ground and covers made of woven grasses or hides. It kept them away from the worst of the cold and damp.

REI may not have been around, but people were doing their best to keep themselves alive and as comfortable as they could. Many of today's homeless are lacking not just the equipment but the whole social support network that went with the native cultures.

[CreekDog]

11. to sleep outside without proper protection? yeah

congratulations on worst post of the day.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

17. In fahrenheit it is, yes. Here in the UK it's horrifically hot. N.T.

[grilled onions]

8. It's Hard To Tell When It's Cold Enough When...

You have your designer coat and gloves to wear,have the heat and or fireplace to keep you comfy and a stocked larder full of warm foods to keep you going. Later on as you drift off to sleep under that new comforter you have that nagging issue about when to open up shelters when it get's COLD ENOUGH!!!:mad:

[dkf]

9. Wow this is ridiculous.

Maybe if they had to sit outside for an hour they could figure out for themselves that 35 is friggen cold.

[Kat45]

10. I didn't realize it could get that cold in California.

I'm a New Englander, and I always thought Southern CA was usually in the seventies, and Northern CA might get in the forties in an extremely cold winter.

[XemaSab]

14. Uh, not quite

I can't entirely speak for Southern California, but I know that it snowed at around a thousand feet in Santa Barbara County a few years ago, and there are ski resorts at 5,000 feet in LA County.

The Bay Area might freeze maybe 10 nights a year, but not a hard freeze.

Anywhere below about a thousand feet in most of Northern California might expect an inch or two of snow once every few years. Here in the North Valley we usually dip down into the teens or lower a few nights a year, and we had a foot of snow a few years back, which was rare.

Usually during the day it gets into the 40s even during the coldest spells through most of the state.

Up in the mountains it can get DAMN cold and HELLA snowy.

Compared with back east, the weather in most of the state is balmy. :)


ETA: This is right up the hill from me. And it can get to 40 feet! :o

[Kat45]

21. I misspoke.

I do know that there are mountains in California and that they have snow and cold like mountains do. I meant to exempt them from my assumptions of CA weather. From what you're saying, it does get colder than I thought, and yeah, that's still balmy compared to New England.

[Retrograde]

22. It depends on where you are

In the Bay Area we get snow down to 1500' several times a year (that means the higher elevations get covered in the white stuff - often a foot or so - while the valley floors are clear). The Bay Area is notorious for its microclimates based on elevation and proximity to the bay, ocean and mountains, so temperatures can vary widely in a short distance. Our home weather station recorded a low of 31F last night; San Francisco, 40 miles away, will have been much warmer. Another big factor is cloud cover: if it's cloudy the heat absorbed from the sun during the day will be trapped for some time, but if it's clear it all dissipates, which means I'm going to have to scrape the frost off the windshield if I want to go anywhere in the morning. And 32F feels pretty cold when you're not dressed or housed for it.

California's noted for its winter sports - up in the mountains where we usually keep the snow. The storm earlier this week dumped enough snow there to require chains on 80 at Donner Pass, and weather does occasionally close the main mountain roads - the ones they bother to plow.

[lonestarnot]

13. Yeah, could be time.

[XemaSab]

15. Most people who die of hypothermia die when the weather is in the 40s or 50s

Why not have shelters year-round?

How the hell are we even talking about what temperatures are acceptable to subject another person to? x(

[Forkboy]

18. Good Lord, it's just poor people. It's not like real people are freezing.

[proud patriot]

23. Californian here

IT 'S FRIGGIN COLD ! ! ! BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

[hobbit709]

24. How about dumping the idiots that wrote this out in the woods

with just the clothes on their backs, no tools, no equipment and let them spend the night.
we'll look for them in the morning, I promise.

[alittlelark]

26. Our backyard was white w/ frost.

We had a 1/4 " of ice on a water filled wheelbarrow.

I went out and sprayed all the plants w/ water last night - they all survived.

It's COLD.