San Antonio business CPS and homeless services prepare for cold weather

SAN ANTONIO – Tonight people are preparing for next week’s cold weather. CPS energy homeless shelters and private businesses are among them.

“Some of these have just old components that just need to go out,” Joe Beluga the owner of Beluga Air said as he works on a training machine.

He ordered small heating components like flame sensors and motors last month in preparation for the upcoming cold weather.

“That’s why were there, to prevent major things from happening,” Beluga said.

They will be out in the cold and expect to see between 200 to 300 customers next week. Double what they normally see.

Having a heater can keep you stay warm but without power it wont turn on. That’s why CPS energy held a press conference last month to let the public know what they’re doing to prepare for the cold weather.

“Last winter we hit a short but really cold snap where we hit close to 5400 megawatts,” CPS Energy President & CEO, Rudy Garza said.

Garza also says they have added about 2000 more megawatts to their grid to make sure you don’t run out this winter and have invested around 20 million dollars in tree trimming.

“During the winter, weather related outages due to trees touching lines are the most common cause of outages, so if we have snow, if we have ice, those tree branches will start to come down and you’ll see branches that would otherwise would be clear of our line that have an impact,” Garza said.

For those without a home Haven For Hope’s Terri Behling says the shelter will open a free warehouse store Monday where their clients can get jackets, gloves, hats or whatever they need. But they will also be going out into the community.

“In addition we will have our outreach teams equipped with hand warmers, blankets, coats, hoodies, whatever we have on hand we will be distributing to those who are unsheltered next week,” Behling said.

They have been operating at over capacity for the past two years but if there is not enough room in other shelters they will let in 81 people. Next Saturday is their coat drive so they can stock up on more coats.