How the homeless population can stay safe during excessive heat

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – With the excessive heat set to come into town this week, many in the homeless population are wondering what they can do to stay cool.

“We basically recommend that they find a public building with air conditioning to spend several hours during the day. Currently, in Simpson County, there is a cooling shelter there that’s been set up by one of the churches,” Janarae Conway, manager of Preparedness & Response for the Barren River District Health Department, says.

But what if there’s no public building nearby?

“If they’re not able to get to a public building with air conditioning, they can go to the lowest floor of a building and getting out of the sun,” Conway says.

For anyone who plans on taking a run or walk, make sure to be aware of the temperatures and plan to do workouts in the early hours.

“If folks are going to be outdoors for any kind of activity, whether it’s for work or exercise or anything, we really recommend that folks do slow down, try to avoid strenuous activities, if at all possible,” Conway says.

If you think you’re not feeling well in the heat, there’s a place you can go to check your symptoms.

“We’ve got them here on our website. So if they want to go to BarrenRiverHealth.org for more information, they can also go to ready.gov. There’s actually on their home page, extreme heat. So you can go there and look up more information and learn more,” Conway says.