SALT LAKE CITY — It’s the longest night of the year, and the wind chill could make it the most dangerous.
“A week before Christmas while we’re all worried to put presents under our trees, we had five people freeze to death on these streets,” said Steffine Amodt with the Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness.
Homeless advocates gathered at Pioneer Park Wednesday night to mourn the over 150 Utahns experiencing homelessness who died this year. The Fourth Street Clinic organization said this is the highest number of deaths in years. Five of those people died in freezing conditions this week.
“For many of these individuals, this is the only service that they will receive and where they will be remembered,” said state homeless coordinator Wayne Niederhauser.
Paul Fairburn remembers when he lived outside around Pioneer Park five years ago.
“I feel sorry for them,” said Fairburn. “There are resources out there, you just need to be proactive and find them, but I feel for them though.”
Emergency room doctors with Intermountain Healthcare expect to see more cold exposure cases over the next few days.
Emergency medicine physician Dr. Harland Hayes said signs of hypothermia include a drop in body core temperature and loss of body function.
“You start to lose strength. You may start to lose coordination,” he explained. “Some people may act a little more clumsy. They may act confused.”
When the wind chill temperature drops, the risk of frostbite goes up.
The Cleveland Clinic states you can be frostbitten in less than half an hour if the windchill is -15 degrees Fahrenheit. The wind chill in some parts of Utah is forecast to hit a jaw-dropping -35 degrees over the next 24 hours.
Dr. Hayes said damaged skin will have a waxy, white appearance.
“Almost like frozen meat. It truly looks like frozen tissue,” he said. “The pain typically will go away at that point.”
The National Weather Service said if you suspect you are experiencing frostbite, hold the area “closely against warm skin to return blood flow and warmth to the affected area.”
If bundling up and going indoors doesn’t improve conditions, seek medical help.
Hayes advises you to look out for those symptoms and one another.
“My call of action tonight is simple: compassion,” said Amodt.
