NYC opens additional warming centers and buses amid bone-chilling cold
With wind gusts expected to reach 50 mph and wind chills dropping into the negative teens, the Office of Emergency Management says frostbite can occur in as little as 30 minutes.
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New York City is expanding its cold‑weather emergency response this weekend as potentially historic temperatures and wind chills move in, prompting warnings from officials about life‑threatening conditions.
With wind gusts expected to reach 50 mph and wind chills dropping into the negative teens, the Office of Emergency Management says frostbite can occur in as little as 30 minutes.
To help residents stay safe, the city has opened eight warming centers across the Bronx and Brooklyn, along with eight warming buses stationed in both boroughs. Many of the centers are inside public hospitals, including NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi in The Bronx and Woodhull Hospital in Bedford‑Stuyvesant.
In neighborhoods like Canarsie, where no warming centers are available, residents may face long bus or subway rides in the dangerous cold to reach those sites.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said all 311 calls involving people exposed to the cold are now being rerouted to 911 to speed up emergency response.
The city’s actions come after 17 outdoor deaths were reported during the current cold snap, more than half of them linked to hypothermia, according to City Hall.
The mayor urged anyone staying outside to seek shelter immediately.
“To those who may consider themselves more comfortable on the streets, I want to speak directly to you,” Mamdani said. “These temperatures are too low and too dangerous to survive.”
City officials say all warming centers are equipped with beds and food. Since the city issued a Code Blue alert, more than 1,200 people have been moved indoors, including 27 individuals who were transported involuntarily because they were deemed a danger to themselves or others.
