Charitable Organizations Help Provide Cooling Relief
CHICAGO (CBS)-- The longer the extreme heat continues the more worried emergency workers become about our most vulnerable people.
One church has become a cooling center, responding to the great need, CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker reports.
The clerk at New Mount Pilgrim Missionary puts the finishing touches on a flyer, announcing the church is now open as a cooling center.
"We decided to do this because it's a need," Rev. Thaddeus Hall said Thursday, as temperatures lingered above 100 for much of the day. "A lot of people out there in that sun. ... They don't have fans, they don't have air-conditioning."
Meanwhile, in Humboldt Park, Christine Henry led the team of Salvation Army workers who give food and water to the homeless who sleep in the park.
Because of the intense heat they've increased their stops to five or six times a day instead of the usual one or two.
"They might dry up and die," Henry says. "We're trying to get them into a cooling center or get them into a shelter, get them off the street."
But Henry says most are reluctant to go to the centers because they don't like the structure and rules.
However, some like Margarita Salvador say she and are husband are thinking of moving because the truck where they sleep is just too hot.
