GREENFIELD — As cities and towns across the state braced for a prolonged snowstorm that brought accumulations of more than a foot of snow across Franklin County and the North Quabbin region, Greenfield’s warming center has been working around the clock to ensure the community stays warm and safe.
National Weather Service meteorologist Caitlyn Mensch described the weekend storm — which reached peak snowfall Sunday afternoon in the late evening hours and saw single-digit temperatures overnight — as being the largest to hit the region since 2022.
With flurries expected to continue in Greenfield until the early evening hours on Monday, Mensch urged the public to, if possible, avoid driving and to take breaks and stay hydrated while shoveling snow. She added that a weather station in Orange detected winds traveling as fast as 25 mph over the weekend.
“There’s still plenty of cleanup to be done. If you can avoid driving today, then you should. If not, then waiting as late as possible is definitely recommended,” Mensch said on Monday. “There’s still a lot of cleanup underway and letting the plows get out there onto the side streets, because they’ve been working pretty hard overnight on the interstates and the main roads, is recommended.”
While members of the public were advised to stay indoors during the storm, the city’s Overnight Warming Center at The Salvation Army on Chapman Street remained open and staffed for those without heat or shelter.
Sarah Ahern, who serves as The Salvation Army’s volunteer coordinator through the Western Massachusetts Medical Reserve Corps, said in an interview on Monday that the Overnight Warming Center saw roughly 16 guests Sunday night through Monday morning.
“The majority of our guests are currently unsheltered. They may be living on the street, or in the woods, in tents … I have not heard any reports of somebody that lost power utilizing the space Sunday night,” Ahern explained.
Although Ahern noted that, per Board of Health regulations, the Overnight Warming Center cannot accept any dogs except for service animals, a community member with two small dogs who was in need of a place to stay was still able to find accommodations.
“I knew that there was a shelter in Northampton that allows dogs,” Ahern recounted, but then, “a community member actually said, ‘I have room, come through.’ So, she is hosting him through the storm.”
Ahern added that the Overnight Warming Center, which has already been open for 30 days this winter, now operates with more than 140 volunteers available. She said the volunteer pool includes a mixture of local emergency services personnel and Medical Reserve Corps staff members who are paid through a portion of supplemental grant funding from the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) to expand shelter and warming center capacity across Massachusetts this winter.
“This year, every shift we have is paired with a public safety officer, and there’s a weekly flow that the Greenfield Police Department, Greenfield Fire Department and the Sheriff’s Department agree on,” Ahern said. “Kudos to the Police, Fire and the Sheriff’s departments for being wonderful community partners. We have all kinds of folks that are signing up to volunteer, and that’s really what makes this particular project work.”
Those in Greenfield who need to escape frigid temperatures can warm up at the Greenfield Public Library from 9:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, from 9:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, and from 9:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
The Greenfield Housing Authority’s Community Room, located at 1 Elm Terrace, will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, while the Oak Courts Common Room on Elm Street will be open weekdays from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. and the John Zon Community Center at 35 Pleasant St. will be open weekdays from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.
Although the Overnight Warming Center’s hours typically run from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., Ahern explained that Capt. Paul Leslie, who oversees operations at The Salvation Army’s Greenfield location, served meals between 5 and 6 p.m. Saturday in an effort to bridge the gap between the overnight center’s opening and the closure of the Greenfield Public Library at 2 p.m.