Last minute decision to open the shelter tonight

Like our guests, the shelter is at the mercy of the weather. In our case, the shelter only opens for the night when the city of Richmond issues an Extreme Weather Alert. The decision to issue the alert is made at 10 a.m. each day and is based on the weather forecast for that night. There are four criteria that can activate an alert, including the temperature at -2 or less. Yesterday (Friday), at 10 a.m. the forecast was for a low of zero overnight. So no alert was issued. However, as night fell, the temperature plummeted and when I woke up this morning, frost covered the ground and the temperature was -3. So, the forecast was wrong and several people had to spend a very cold night.

This morning, the forecast was also for zero degrees, so again at 10 no alert issued. However, by 3 pm, the forecast for overnight temperature had been modified to -2, so we decided to open. Fortunately, the Richmond Extreme Weather official had given me her cell phone number for just this purpose so I was able to reach her (in the middle of her putting up Christmas lights on her home) and within minutes the official alert had been issued to the RCMP, ambulance services etc.

Next, we had to call in staff and volunteers and more importantly get the word out to the homeless in the area that the shelter would be open. Jan and I drove around to a few known locations including 3 bottle depots where we posted signs and in the process met up with three people who had stayed at the shelter during the last cold snap, and gave them the news directly. Word spread and four people were there in time to enjoy a nice spaghetti dinner, including one with the word that two more were on their way.

All's well that ends well.

Five volunteers helped open the shelter, then cooked up a fine spaghetti dinner