The temperatures today will be in the mid-60’s but just over a week ago the air around Charlottesville remained below freezing much longer than usual. That put a lot of vulnerable people in danger and the City of Charlottesville made efforts to help.
“During the cold snap, we’re very thankful that we were able to work hand in hand with our nonprofit partners at the Haven as well as at PACEM to ensure that members of our community who found themselves unhoused were kept safe and warm,” said Deputy City Manager Ashley Marshall.
Marshall said both the Department of Human Services and the Department of Social Services worked with those groups during the time. She encouraged anyone who knows someone who is unhoused to call the homeless intake hotline at (434) 207-2328.
“While we don’t have that weather this week, we will continue to work to make sure that kind of engagement occurs,” Marshall said.
The ten day forecast from Weather Underground does not show a return to a cold snap in the next 240 hours. City Councilor Brian Pinkston thanked Marshall and city staff for their work.
“I think we all had a sense it was going to get cold but I don’t think we had a sense it was going to get that cold,” Pinkston said. “And then that it happened just before the holiday weekend. I’m just grateful you all met and came up with a plan and executed the plan. I’m just glad to see that sort of collaboration happening.”
How cold was the snap? I asked Travis Koshko of CBS19 for context.
“According to CHO observations it looks like we were below freezing for at least 50 hours from 12/23 at 10:53 am to 12/25 at 12:53 p.m.,” Koshko wrote in an email this afternoon.
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