Michael Hale, left, and Will Clark, run across the Walnut Street Bridge on Saturday morning as a light snow accumulates on the ground.The roads of Chattanooga were empty of pedestrians Saturday. People crowded into restaurants and behind the doors of the library and the children’s museum to stay warm.
On 11th Street, workers tried to warm up another group — the local homeless community.
The Chattanooga Community Kitchen typically houses about 120 people a night — there were 96 men, 24 women and three children there Friday night.
But “we’ve seen as many as 176 when it’s cold,” Donations Coordinator Steve Ellis said Saturday. He predicted about that number would seek shelter Saturday night, the second night of temperatures in the teens and icy, whipping winds.
The fall was extreme and quick. At 10 p.m. Friday, wind chill made the temperature feel like 41 degrees. Twelve hours later, the combined temperature and wind chill had dropped to 14 degrees, and a biting wind blew snow flurries about.