Freezing temperatures, uncertainty and concern among migrants living outside Chicago police stations: ‘How are we going to survive winter here?’
CHICAGO — Thousands of migrants sleeping at police stations woke up to freezing cold conditions on Halloween morning as city officials, volunteers and faith-based organizations scrambled to find warmth Tuesday for a population, mostly from Venezuela, that has never experienced cold.
Temperatures plummeted overnight to a low of 30 degrees at O’Hare International Airport, said the National Weather Service, and safety networks stepped in to react to emergencies brought on by the cold. Temperatures were expected to stay around 37 degrees with light snow flurries for 24 hours, weather officials said.
Migrants across the city huddled under thin blankets as they sat on cardboard boxes or in tents, lined up for the chance to shower and warm up inside churches and rushed to claim warm jackets and clothes brought by volunteers. A handful of the 16 warming buses sent to police stations from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. that were witnessed by the Tribune were scarcely used, perhaps because of the trauma migrants experienced being bused to Chicago from the border,
