MOULTRIE, Ga. — The City of Moultrie is making allowances for homeless people as the region faces several days of bitterly cold temperatures.

The National Weather Service predicts a cold front will come through the region Friday, dropping temperatures to an estimated 18 degrees Friday night. It will be almost a week before nightly lows will again be much above freezing. Highs during that period range from the low 30s on Saturday to the low 60s next Thursday.

The NWS issued a hard freeze warning from 6 p.m. Friday through 11 a.m. Sunday.

Such temperatures can be devastating to people without protection, so the City of Moultrie has rented rooms at Town Terrace Motel to provide a warm place for the homeless to stay until the worst of the freeze is over, City Manager Pete Dillard said by email this morning.

Dillard noted the assistance of United Way, the Community Action Council and others for making the plan possible.

Moultrie police are visiting today and tomorrow with known homeless people to make sure they know about the rooms, Dillard said.

“Those who will cooperate can be taken to the Town Terrace and checked in for up to a week,” he said. “If someone shows up at the Town Terrace on their own the police will be called to document and approve their stay prior to their being checked in.

“If anyone knows of a homeless person who needs shelter please contact the Moultrie Police Department,” he said.

The Greater Newton Grove Cathedral has been renovating a house for a homeless shelter, the Rev. Cornelius Ponder told The Observer in June. On Wednesday he said the facility is about 95% finished. He said it isn’t ready to be the first response to the cold weather but could handle some overflow from the city’s project if needed. He hopes to be able to announce the shelter’s opening early next year.

The Moultrie area received roughly a half-inch of rain Tuesday and early Wednesday, according to the weather station at the Sunbelt Ag Expo. The National Weather Service predicts a 40% chance of rain on Thursday, but Friday is expected to be sunny and breezy.

Colquitt County Emergency Management Director Justin Cox said the wind on Friday should help things to dry off before freezing temperatures arrive Friday afternoon. Icy roads should not be a problem here, he said, but areas in middle and north Georgia are very concerned about them.

Cox said an NWS briefing on Tuesday warned of temperatures in the low 20s here with wind chills in the low teens, but in North Georgia the wind chills could drop into the negative single-digits.

He urged residents to take care of people, pets, pipes and plants:

• People: The elderly suffer more from the cold. Check on family members and neighbors to make sure they’re OK.

• Pets: Bring pets inside where it’s warm and out of the wind.

• Pipes: Pipes can burst when the water inside freezes. Wrap exposed pipes to insulate them. Leave one or two faucets dripping during the coldest times; running water is less likely to freeze. Open cabinet doors to let the warmth in the house reach pipes under the sink.

• Plants: Bring potted plants indoors. If that’s not possible, group them together in a protected area, like the inside corner of a covered patio, and cover them with plastic. For plants growing in the ground, mulch them with a loose, dry material such as pine straw or leaves; the mulch can completely cover low-growing plants, but don’t leave a complete cover on for more than three or four days.

Cox said something many people don’t think about is the wind. If a fallen limb or ice takes down a power line, utility crews have to wait for the wind to die down before they can repair it.