Cancun, Q.R. — Truckloads of warm blankets have been handed out in recent days due to the ongoing cold weather. Unusually low temperatures of single digits have been recorded in some areas of the state due to the persistent cold snaps.
On Saturday, another blanket-drive was held, this time for less fortunate residents of Cancun. City Council arranged for Civil Protection trucks to deliver the free micro fleece blankets to areas where help was most needed.
Hundreds of people lined up ahead of the arrival of the trucks to get a free blanket. Cancun Mayor Ana Paty Peralta said the blanket-drive was carried out in several large less fortunate areas of the city with help from the System for the Integral Development of the Family (DIF) and the Civil Protection Directorate.
She said the free blankets were given to families living in non-municipalized neighborhoods as part of priority attention actions. Those non-municipalized neighborhoods are on the outskirts of the city and are without basic services such as electricity.
There, plugging in an electric heater during cold weather is not an option.
Marisol Sendo Rodríguez, the General Director of the Cancun DIF System, said that this delivery of blankets has the main objective of protecting the health and well-being of children, elderly people and families in priority situations in the face of the effects of the cold fronts.
She said those cold fronts have generated intense winds and significant drops in temperature in the region, weather that penetrates the makeshift homes of those living in these areas.
“Low temperatures pose a risk, especially for those living in more vulnerable conditions. Therefore, at DIF, we work constantly and closely with families, reinforcing preventative measures to help protect their health and improve their quality of life,” she said.
On Saturday, Civil Protection trucks distributed the warm blankets to hundreds of people in 17 non-municipalized neighborhoods.
Nighttime temperatures in Cancun this time of year are normally in the low 20s, however, the constant masses of Arctic air reaching the Yucatan Peninsula have seen nighttime temperatures dip into the mid-teens.
State Civil Protection issued a weather notice Saturday of temperature lows of between 8C (46F) and 10C (50F) from February 2 to 4 with the arrival of Cold front 32. Those extreme lows will be felt mostly in the central regions of the state.
