Frigid temperatures. No heat. How Bloomington came together to help Wheeler Mission

Around 10 p.m. Saturday night, just as temperatures dropped below 20 degrees, Dana Jones, director of community engagement services at Bloomington's Wheeler Mission, received a call that the shelter had lost heat.

“It was daunting. I was fearful,” Jones said. “It was 50, 55 degrees in the building, and we were all just like, ‘What’s gonna happen?’”

Wheeler Mission, which provides both emergency shelter and long-term residential programs for men experiencing homelessness, was sheltering more than 70 people in its main dorm on Saturday night when its HVAC systems went out, according to Jones.

Jones’ first call was to Commercial Service, which responded quickly, but found that due to a missing part, repairs would have to wait until Monday.

His second call was to Monroe County Director of Emergency Management Jamie Niebel, who said she was just settling into bed around 11 p.m. when Jones debriefed her on the situation.

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“I was like, oh man, that’s one of those shot in the dark oddities,” Niebel said. “But I texted back and was like, ‘You know what? Let me work on it. I’ll make some calls and see what I can track down.’”

Niebel said she’d never dealt with coordinating an emergency response like this before. But, she said, the guiding principles of emergency management are always the same.

“We are a gatherer of things and people,” Niebel said. “You just gotta hit the ground running and always be thinking ahead.”

For the next three hours, Niebel and Jones called various organizations and services in an attempt to find space heaters for the shelter.

At first, Niebel said, things seemed bleak, with both the Salvation Army and Red Cross responding that they didn’t have heaters. But gradually, solutions arose.

The first sign of salvation came around midnight, when David Weil, executive director of The Warehouse, a nonprofit gymnasium and activity center, responded to a call from Jones asking if he had heaters. After scouring the facility, Weil found and delivered three heaters to Wheeler Mission around midnight.

"Wheeler's helped us out before, and I just think whenever you have another Christian brother in need, you help out," Weil said.

Around the same time, Niebel made a last-effort call to IU Health Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Cornman, who she’d worked with on plan reviews in prior years. Surprisingly, Niebel said, Cornman was both awake and willing to help.

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“I knew that within his stockpile that he had a small cache of space heaters,” Niebel said. “And so I told him what I was after, where it was going, and he said, 'You know what? I will look for those and tell you what I find.'”

Cornman was able to locate five space heaters in a storage facility, and dropped them off to Wheeler Mission around 2 a.m.

“It’s just one of those things you do as a community, you come together, you count on each other,” Cornman said. “We came together, and it worked.”

By 2 a.m., Jones said they were able to raise the shelter's temperature above 60 degrees. And, to his surprise, Commercial Service was able to come a day earlier than expected, and restore heat to the building by 6 p.m. on Sunday.

“It was amazing, just all the effort and support,” Jones said. “Everybody stepping in, it takes a community to make it happen.”

Jones said despite the fear and uncertainty of the situation, he’s grateful the community came together to find solutions, and has been heartened by the response from the Bloomington public.

“Monday came along, and people saw our social media post, and people have been dropping off hats and coats, and it’s been just amazing,” Jones said.

Niebel said this weekend’s incident is a reminder of the importance of relationships in emergency management.

“When our critical facilities go down like that, it’s a thing,” Niebel said. “You have to get out there and make your relationships and get to know people, so that you can make those phone calls in the middle of the night, and have people actually answer.”

Reach Brian Rosenzweig at brian@heraldt.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: 70 housed in Bloomington men's shelter when heat quit Saturday night