ST. LOUIS — William Davis has lived on the streets since the recession cost him his job as a commercial painter. Over the last eight months, he’s made it through heat waves, windstorms, rain, snow and ice.
But the 51-year-old finally sought help at a homeless shelter Thursday after enduring a night shivering in temperatures that bottomed out at zero — the coldest reading here in eight years.
As the financial crisis has grown worse, the homeless population has changed to include more people like Davis who just months ago were working for a living, according to Ray Redlich, assistant director of New Life Evangelistic Center in St. Louis.
“We found one young man in a sleeping bag under an overpass. He’d had his home foreclosed on,” Redlich said.
The freezing temperatures may also have contributed to at least three deaths.
In Pollock, S.D., which dropped to a record-setting 47 below zero, Todd Moser, who works at a gas station, said it took about 10 minutes before the gas pumps started working.
“It just hurts to breathe out there,” said Moser, adding that he could only stand it for about five minutes. “After a while your face really just starts to hurt and you’ve just really got to get back in.”
The weather system descended from a large, dry air mass that hovered over Alaska and northern Canada for a couple of weeks before moving south. The frostiest conditions were to the north, but the cold stretched as far south as Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. Wind-chill advisories were issued in more than a dozen states.
The bitter conditions were expected to persist for at least one more day, with even colder weather predicted for today in the Northeast. In northern Maine, forecasters said the thermometer would not climb above zero until Sunday.
Across the nation, hundreds of schools and government offices closed or sent people home early.
In Illinois, a 37-year-old man was found frozen to death Thursday in the snow outside his home in Normal — without a coat, hat or gloves. Preliminary tests indicated he was intoxicated.
A 50-year-old man in southeastern Michigan appeared to have frozen to death after being locked out of his duplex overnight.
Earlier in the week, a Wisconsin man froze to death after he apparently went sleepwalking outdoors in bare feet. Authorities suspect he had also been drinking before his body was found Tuesday.
The nation’s cold spots on Thursday were Garrison, N.D., and Pollock, S.D., both of which came in at 47 below zero. Records lows were recorded in Bismarck, N.D., where it was minus 44, and in Aberdeen, S.D., where it was minus 42.
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