Communities around Wisconsin are providing warming shelters, as life-threatening cold hangs on across the state. Milwaukee Mayor Tom announced the opening of two additional shelters on Thursday, the same day that an elderly woman’s death due to exposure became the third cold-related death in Milwaukee this week.
“We don’t want to have any situations where individuals lose their lives or become victims of frostbite . . . because they are not protected in the elements,” Barrett said.
Elsewhere in Wisconsin, two additional deaths potentially linked to the cold were reported on Wednesday. In Green Bay, police believe a 60-year-old woman who was found dead by a relative likely fell and struck her head while reaching for a dropped key.
And in Barron County, the Sheriff’s Office said investigators found the body of 49-year-old Joseph Moen in the woods outside of Chetek. Moen was last seen December 27th and his cause of death appeared to be hypothermia. The Barron County Sheriff’s Department has placed emergency warming shelters on stand-by, for residents who need a place to get warmed up.
The cold weather is a likely cause in the deaths of 9 people in Wisconsin in the past week. The deaths in Milwaukee include a man who ran from the scene of a crash. Mark Henderson’s body was found the next day. In Dane County, the body of an 84-woman with dementia and was found outside her Sun Prairie nursing home.
The severe cold is finally expected to break on Sunday, with temperatures early next week in the upper twenties to mid-thirties.