SAN MARCOS NONPROFITS
The freezing temperatures reached a low of 18 degrees this past weekend. The community took action to ensure their neighbors were safe. Various nonprofits were working together to provide shelter and meals to those in need, including warming centers at Southside Community Center and VFW Post 3413.
Southside Community Center will be open this weekend, when low temperatures are again predicted to be in the 20s.
The city of San Marcos also took steps to keep residents safe ahead of the winter storm last weekend.
“The City of San Marcos takes weather events that pose a threat to residents and property seriously and made numerous preparations to keep our community safe,” said Nadine Cesak, a spokesperson with the city. “That included pretreating bridges and priority roadways to minimize ice accumulation and continuing to treat affected roadways throughout the weekend as needed.”
SOUTHSIDE COMMUNITY CENTER
Jessica Cain, Southside Community Center community engagement director, said the center was open from 7 p.m. on Friday until 12 p.m. Monday. The protocol for Southside to open as a warming center is when the temperature is at or below 35 degrees for three or more hours.
“It ended up being about 65 hours straight of the shelter being open to anyone who needed that,” Cain said.
Normally, the center opens at 7 p.m. and closes by 9 a.m.
Cain said 16 people used the shelter Friday, 21 on Saturday, 26 on Sunday, 22 on Monday and Southside provided a hotel stay for the entirety of the freeze for two families.
While Southside does not provide transportation, they partnered with other nonprofits this weekend to help people get to the shelter.
“We did partner with H.O.M.E. Center this weekend in terms of transportation for anybody who couldn’t get to us,” Cain said. “They and also Breaking Bread Ministries did some street outreach over the weekend — finding folks where they were and letting them know that we were open, and then offering transportation to them as well.”
Cain said they will be acting as a warming center for the upcoming cold front also, saying that “cold is a little bit easier for us to deal with than cold with precipitation.”
Cain wanted to thank the community for their support.
“We had so many people call and ask what we needed and supply blankets, pillows and sheets,” Cain said. “We also had a bunch of folks jump in and provide all sorts of meals. So while we were open 24/7 we had breakfast, lunch and dinner. … On a regular day, we have breakfast and dinner already, so the folks who are helping us by providing those meals really allowed us to give our staff who are here overnight a nice, big break.”
The shelter is located at 518 S. Guadalupe St.
VFW POST 3413
Stephanie Brown, VFW Post 3413 Commander, said this was the first time the VFW was officially opened as a warming center, other than when it opened during the Winter Storm in 2021. This was done in partnership with several community nonprofits, including The Red Cross Community Adaptation Program (CAP), which works with local nonprofits to increase their ability to provide essential services during disasters. The VFW, located at 1701 Hunter Rd., was available to anyone who needed it from Saturday afternoon until Monday afternoon.
“We had a little bit of time to prep. We knew it was coming, but we were able to run through procedures,” Brown said. “How do we activate? How do we notify the membership that we need volunteers? Basically, this was a good soft run of what we would do to activate for a bigger emergency.”
In addition to the people who came in and out for warmth and a meal, Brown said six people stayed on Saturday night, as well as six on Sunday night.
“We weren’t meant to be a shelter,” Brown said. “But because we could, we did.”
Volunteers assisted in the emergency response efforts.
“We had members from the post come in to cover hours. We had members from our auxiliary make hot food and bring that in since our kitchen’s still down and out,” Brown said. “I just really appreciate everybody who reached out, everybody who volunteered or donated. Thank you.”
Hays County Food Bank is also a part of the Red Cross CAP, so they provided food as well.
“They brought in snacks and drinks and fruit and just things to sustain people,” Brown said.
The VFW did not provide transportation but also partnered with the H.O.M.E.
Center, which gave rides to those who needed it. The H.O.M.E. Center provides outreach, mitigation and emergency response in order to reduce homelessness to functional zero in Hays County, according to the website.
EMERGENCY RESPONSE INFORMATION
Haysinformed.com has a host of emergency response resources available. There is a list of Warming Centers throughout the county, as well as additional educational materials for various emergency situations.
