Missouri is home to hundreds of cooling centers to help you beat the heat. Designated cooling centers around the state include senior centers, local health departments, community centers, Salvation Army locations, and public libraries.
Rachel Grime, director of the Moberly Public Library, told Missourinet that her library is a popular place during heatwaves.
“Libraries are almost perfect for this because we have a thousand things for you to do,” she said. “We have no expectation that you spend any money. We want you to come in, enjoy your time. It’s a building and a place for everybody.”
The Moberly Public Library is a part of Little Dixie Regional Libraries, a four-library system serving northern Missouri’s Randolph and Monroe Counties. The other three locations – Madison, Paris, and Huntsville also serve as cooling centers.
“We have such a wide variety of things,” Grime said. “So, when you talked about spending money at a movie theatre, we all know that costs a lot. That costs now. It’s a little bit. You can come in. We have Wi-Fi. We have internet. Public libraries are absolutely perfect for cooling and heating centers. We want people to be comfortable and want them to be safe.”
Many cooling centers are in Missouri libraries. Grime said that a wide variety of people come in.
“We have a lot of elderly folks that come in when it’s hot just because it is really expensive to have your air conditioning on,” she said. “It is really expensive, and especially when it gets as hot as it is now. We have a lot of families that come. We have a lot of families that, you know, when you spend a lot of time together, and it’s really hot, you get kind of testy.”
The Little Dixie Regional Libraries system also serve as designated warming centers during the winter.
Click here to view the list of cooling stations.
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