The safe room at the Bradie M. Shrum Elementary School has now opened as a warming station in Salem until further notice, according to Salem Mayor Justin Green.
Green said the warming station at the First Christian Church in Salem is without power due to an outage from Duke Energy that currently has about 1400 Salem residents in the dark.
And on the coldest day of the year so far. Air temperatures are -8 with wind chills hovering around -28 the high today of only 5 degrees which won’t come until about midnight.
A winter snow storm dipped down from the north last night bringing an inch or two of snow in places, which quickly drifted around causing small piles of snow and hazardous driving conditions over night.
The menace now is the sub-zero cold which won’t leave the area until after the Christmas weekend.
According to WSLM Owner and General Manager Becky White, Saturday’s weather high will be about 15 with Christmas Day expected to reach about 20 degrees.
“Temperatures won’t reach above freezing until Tuesday,” White said. “And by next weekend we’ll have rain and temperatures near 60 degrees.”
Green said City of Salem Police officers were on standby to take residents to the safe room, located at 1103 North Shelby Street.
If you need a ride, call them at 812-883-5100.
