The Midwest is experiencing historically cold weather.
In a DeKalb, McDonald’s some found shelter from record breaking cold temperatures. A man sat in a booth, his table covered with a few black trays, newspapers and paper cups. He’d rather not be identified, so we’ll refer to him as Pete.
Pete is seventy years old and homeless. He said he was thankful to wake up that morning regardless of the weather.
“I usually come out here and read the papers every day, and have coffee,” he said.
He said he then usually goes to nearby shops like Barb City Bagels. Smaller businesses like that bagel shop closed for safety reasons. Pete planned to stay at McDonald's for much of the day instead. That location closes at 1 am.
“Well, I’ve got a place to stay. Yeah, so I’m not really worried about that," he said.
Some businesses like gas stations and coffee shops stayed open Wednesday as temperatures hit double-digit negatives. Some DeKalb County officials promoted warming centers this week. These aren’t the same as overnight shelters. At least half of locations promoted as warming centers were closed on Wednesday. Hope Havenand the Sycamore Police Station were two of the few confirmed official shelters in DeKalb County.
In Rockford, The Second First Church turned into an overnight cafe. Becky Erbe is the associate pastor.
“Well, when we found out that it was going to be record-breaking cold and the reports were that Rockford was going to be colder than the arctic, we knew we had to do something,” she said.
Erbe said the gym can fit 200 people. She doesn’t expect that they’ll be totally full. The space isn’t necessarily for sleeping, she said, but they are ready to meet any need.
“We did a vote after church on Sunday and got some money going in order to pay some staff and we were going to open our doors Monday through Thursday this week,” she said.
She said this is their first time opening their church's gym as a shelter. Extreme climate events affect specific communities more than others, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC records the effects of events like heat waves or floods on communities, something they track and callsocial vulnerability.
“But right now there is not much work on cold events and how social vulnerabilities [is] affecting with that,” said Dr. Sakil Bin Kashem, a professor at the University of Illinois who studies climate change and social vulnerability.
He said accessibility to shelters by public transit is just part of the way communities can prepare ahead of bad weather. He said factors like poverty or transportation problems make weather events more difficult to adapt for some people. He said local governments can ease the challenge by preparing ahead of time.
“They have to [not] look at one-time assistance like this, they have to look at long term solutions,” he said.
Low income families and communities of color have the hardest time responding to extreme weather events caused by climate changes according to BRACE-Illinois. BRACE is a CDC funded program. They work with state and local governments to help implement emergency weather response. Elena Grossman is a project manager with BRACE. She said people without resources to adapt their lifestyle are most vulnerable when climates become dangerous like in northern Illinois.
“These are communities that are often low income and that can have a really great impact on cold weather events in terms of needing to turn the heat up to a necessary temperature and really feeling like you’re able to afford that,” she said.
She said conversations about climate changes or weather extremes should be focused around people.
“It’s not about glaciers, it’s not about polar bears, but it’s about people and their health and their livelihood and the ability to live the best life that they can,” she said.
Grossman said BRACE has seen an increase in community leaders looking to serve their residents as weather becomes unpredictable due to climate change.
“I think that there has been a larger level of interest in terms of being able to locate vulnerable populations,” said Grossman.
Wednesday night marked the coldest temperatures some part of the Midwest have ever seen. Some schools and businesses said they’ll stay closed until the temperatures are more tolerable.
Governor Pritzker issued a disaster proclamation due to extreme low temperatures in Illinois. This declaration is meant to connect local governments with state resources and finances to respond and recover from the cold weather.