BANGOR, Maine — As Mainers continue to fight the heat, cooling centers in the Greater Bangor area are open and ready to serve people needing a place to cool off as temperatures soar.
Cooling centers at the Cross Insurance Center, The Mansion Church, The Brick Church, The Together Place, and the HEART Community Center are open and available through Thursday.
Click here to see operation times for each location or check the list below:
Cross Insurance Center
Renewal by Andersen Entrance, 515 Main St.
Open Wednesday and Thursday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Mansion Church
96 Center St.
Open Wednesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
HEART Community Center
304 Hancock St.
Open each day from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Brick Church
126 Union St.
Open Wednesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Together Place
2 Second St.
Open Thursday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Temperatures in Bangor were in the 90s on Wednesday, but due to the humidity, temperatures felt like 100 degrees or more.
The heat wave is made worse by temperatures not cooling off much at night, leaving many without a break from the heat.
Water, electrolytes, and somewhere to cool off is what many people will be searching for as high temperatures are expected to continue into Thursday.
"When I saw the weather, that it was going to feel like 102, I knew we had to be open," Tina Jakacky said, explaining that the Brick Church is not usually open on Wednesdays.
Jakacky is the treasurer of the church. She and other church volunteers are giving their time to make sure the cooling center is open. Showers and food are available to anyone who stops in, she said.
"We don't get this heat very often. I lived in Arizona for a short time," Jakacky said. "And when I stepped out of my house this morning, I thought, 'Wow, this feels like Arizona.'"
The Brick Church does not have air conditioning, but Jakacky said it feels better indoors than it does outside. She explained many people who come in are unhoused with nowhere to cool off.
"Those are things that we take for granted, but they don't have access to those things," Jakacky said.
Pastor Terry Dinkins at the Mansion Church said that with the large population of unhoused people in the city, it's important to have multiple services that are available and easily accessible.
"I can just imagine being out there 24/7 in the heat," Pastor Terry Dinkins at the Mansion Church said. "It's got to be really challenging to do that."
Dinkins and Jakacky also explained that there are a lot of people who use the cooling center who don't have access to air conditioning at home or who live on the third and fourth floors of apartment buildings that are harder to cool.
The Mansion Church and Brick Church have both received food and water donations from the community, but more is needed.
"No one here is paid. Not even our pastor," Jakacky said.
Nonprofit organization Needlepoint Sanctuary purchased more than 13,000 cases of water for social service programs, stretching from organizations in Portland like Preble Street to the Mansion Church and others in Bangor.
"Nobody's access to water should be contingent on their ability to pay, because it really is about life," Luke Sekera-Flanders, Needlepoint Sanctuary's public health community organizer, said.
Jakacky said it's not enough to have cooling centers and water available, explaining that people need to take a few extra steps to ensure that everyone is safe.
"Check on your neighbor. Check on your relatives. This is dangerous for everybody," she said. "It's a sad fact that not everybody is able to get to a cooling center, any cooling center. That's why we as citizens of Maine need to be sure we check on people and take care of them."
If you run an organization helping to support people sheltering from the heat and you need cases of water, you can contact Needlepoint Sanctuary at 207-505-1510.
Donations to Needlepoint Sanctuary and its emergency heat dome response efforts to help the organization supply water for various organizations in the state can be made here.