NORTH PORT — When the temperature drops Sunday night to 40 degrees and below, the North Port community will be ready. Living Waters Lutheran Church will be the site of the first temporary emergency shelter in the city since its incorporation. The shelter, while providing relief from the cold weather, also is expected to be open in other times of emergency, such as post-hurricane, wildfire or HAZMAT events.

Locally, the shelter will be run by volunteers through the Community Health Action Team, or CHAT, and not by city government. The city response plan is to have police officers transport those needing shelter to facilities located in Englewood, Venice, Sarasota or Charlotte County. The anticipated cold weather has sped up the process of getting volunteers and volunteer sites accredited with the American Red Cross. Logistics team volunteers from the agency spent Saturday morning completing emergency assessments of the facilities at Living Waters, 12475 Chancellor Blvd., Port Charlotte, near the county line; and New Hope Community Church, 5600 S. Biscayne Drive, in the northwest section of the city. Paperwork including an agreement between the Red Cross and the churches is necessary so the two organizations can obtain liability protection from the Red Cross. Trained Red Cross volunteers from other areas will oversee the 6 p.m.-to-7 a.m. shelter operation. Community volunteers have not been trained yet but are scheduled to receive their training at the end of the month at New Hope. After the training, they too will receive liability protection. Typically, the Red Cross will alert partners to prepare to open a shelter if the National Weather Service projects temperatures to hit 32 degrees. Not so in the North Port community. “We’re going to go with 40 (degrees),” said Sam George, CHAT chairman. “When we hear from (Sarasota County Emergency Management Chief) Ed McCrane — boom — we’re going to activate the system.”