Post updated at 5:08 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11:
The City of Lawrence is opening the Amtrak station in East Lawrence Thursday night for anyone who needs to stay warm.
Douglas County will be under a wind chill watch from Friday evening through Tuesday morning. With the single-digit temperatures and strong winds coming in, people should prepare to shelter as much as they can and bundle up. Frostbite can hit within minutes of being outside.
“Through the Bert Nash Homeless Outreach Team, we’re ensuring every person staying at a known campsite is given an opportunity to relocate indoors,” according to a news release from the city.
Update:
• City of Lawrence to keep Santa Fe Depot open for shelter through extreme cold snap; volunteers needed, Jan. 12, 2024
“The Santa Fe Depot can serve 40 people overnight and all guests will be provided bedding to sleep,” according to the release. The depot is at 413 E. Seventh St.
The city anticipates volunteer opportunities at the depot will be available, and it will share details soon. It will primarily be staffed by city employees who usually work at the North Lawrence camp, according to the release.
The Lawrence Community Shelter, 3655 E. 25th St., is also available to stay warm overnight. It can accommodate pets for anyone seeking overnight shelter.
The city is opening the train depot in anticipation of the shelter possibly hitting capacity. City staff members have said if that happens, shelter and city staff members will transport people to the depot.
The announcement comes on the heels of criticism from dozens of community members Tuesday who asked Lawrence city commissioners to take further action to help people sleeping outside, including by reopening the downtown Community Building as an emergency overnight shelter.
City staff members have said since March 2023 that there would be no emergency sheltering at the Community Building again this winter, but Misty Bosch-Hastings, homeless programs coordinator, said the city could open the Santa Fe Depot if necessary to accommodate people if LCS hit capacity.
Bosch-Hastings said Tuesday that the depot would have a “sit-up” shelter, where people would have a chair inside to stay warm, but no bedding. That plan has changed, the city’s news release indicated.
The Lawrence Community Shelter can be reached by the Route 1 bus from downtown. It leaves the stop at Seventh and Vermont streets starting at 6 a.m., and the last downtown stop is at 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. See the full route and schedule at this link. Buses are free to ride for 2024.
“The City will continue to share information about emergency shelter response throughout the coming days,” according to the release.
If you or someone you know needs help, contact city staff members Bosch-Hastings at 785-760-1481 or Cicely Thornton at 785-813-9483.
First United Methodist Church is also opening a volunteer-run emergency shelter on Friday. “They will shelter individuals based on referral from LCS – up to 20 people,” according to the release.
The Bert Nash homeless outreach team is also providing vouchers for people who are unable to stay at the Lawrence Community Shelter.
See more severe weather resources below. Read more about the weather forecast for Friday and the weekend in this article.
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Severe weather resources
National Weather Service local office (Topeka):
• Find the latest weather forecast info and severe weather advisories for the Lawrence area at this link.
• In the event of rapidly changing severe weather, such as tornadoes, the NWS posts frequent updates on Twitter, @NWSTopeka. You do not need a Twitter account to see tweets from NWS.
• NWS is also on Facebook, facebook.com/NWSTopeka.
• Call 785-234-2592 to hear the forecast.
Douglas County Emergency Management:
• Follow @DgCoEM on Twitter or Douglas County, KS- Emergency Management on Facebook, facebook.com/dgcoem.
• Sign up to receive emergency alerts at dgcoks.org/emalerts.
• Find lots of tips on severe weather and other emergency preparedness on DgCoEM’s website at douglascountyks.org/emergency-management.
• Report storm damage (for non-emergencies only, and after storm danger has passed) by calling the nonemergency dispatch line at 785-843-0250 or 785-832-7509.
Evergy outages:
• Check the status of power outages on the Evergy outage map, outagemap.evergy.com.
• Report a power outage at evergy.com/report-outage, or call 800-544-4857.
• For down powerlines, call 911.
City of Lawrence snow info:
• The city has snow information and a map at lawrenceks.org/snow that shows information about road conditions and snow plow locations. The city typically begins snow and ice control for residential roadways when 2 or more inches of snowfall or icing occurs.
Air quality:
• Check the current air quality index in Lawrence and elsewhere through AirNow, airnow.gov.
Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
Latest Lawrence news:
August Rudisell/Lawrence Times
