FAIRMONT – The Union Mission was a hot ticket on a 17-degree afternoon Tuesday.
“We had 27 people come in last night to stay,” said Jeff Benedict, the clergyman who oversees operations there. “I just looked in the dining room and I counted 12 people. We’ve been letting people stay there, too.”
For nearly 90 years, the facility, which sits near the entrance of the Jefferson Street Bridge overlooking the B&O rail yard, has been opening its doors to those in need of a meal or a bed or both.
That’s been even more critical during these most recent nights gauzed with the frost of Winter Storm Fern – which blew through the region over the weekend with a coating of snow and a blast of Arctic chill that forecasters say may not move out until the second week of February, if then.
And in the immediate, the area remained under a cold weather advisory for the day.
Temperatures that evening were expected to drop to around 4 degrees – with called wind chills of 15 below.
“Yeah, that’s definitely cold,” said Benedict, who is affectionately known as “Pastor Jeff” in the community.
“We’re here and we’re open. We’re always open, 365 days a year, no matter the weather. We were the original warming shelter.”
For the locations of other warming shelters across the region, there’s West Virginia 211.
That’s a free service managed by the United Way which tells people where to turn in times of uncertainty, such as unprecedented spates of weather.
To find a warming shelter in your locale, dial 211 or text your ZIP code to 898-211.
Meanwhile, forecasters are watching to see what might happen with another weather pattern gathering itself over the Gulf.
That could mean more snow this weekend for north-central West Virginia, AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Pastelok said.
“Could,” he stressed.
He tracks such systems and their potential outcomes from AccuWeather’s home base in State College, Pennsylvania.
“How fast the storm strengthens will be a determining factor,” he said, “and whether or not it moves up the East Coast.”
