KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Frigid temperatures provide no escape for some people who have to work outside.
Construction is underway on a new hotel in the Country Club Plaza area of Kansas City and workers are dealing with temperatures in the teens.
“Today is a pretty nice day at 18 degrees. It’s not bad out here right now. Tomorrow when it’s negative, it’ll be a lot different," Mike Parks with Ryan Companies said.
Parks said although conditions could be worse, the company pays attention to workers exposed to the weather too long.
“We do watch for hypothermia on people. Slurring speech, sluggishness are some of things we watch for, and frostbite is the other thing you have to pay attention to," he said.
In addition to being alert for issues, Parks added there's a covered area on the construction site where warm air is blown inside to give workers a temporary escape from the cold.
People are not the only issue, so is equipment like cranes that could experience problems if temperatures get dangerously cold.
“The hydraulics on them will freeze up or the hydraulics could freeze and come loose, and hoses come loose and hurt somebody," Parks said.
Construction workers are not the only workers exposed to the outside elements.
Downtown ambassadors with the Community Improvement Districts perform several tasks outside downtown Kansas City from safety patrol to snow removal.
“We use some of our vehicles as warming stations," Ronell Bailey said. "Some of our downtown business partners, they let us come in, warm up, get a hot cocoa, coffee and things of that nature.”
Bailey has been an ambassador for 19 years and has been exposed to worse weather conditions. He said another way they prepare for the frigid cold is by paying attention to the weather forecast.
"We know it’s going to be like this, we’ll teach all of our ambassadors to layer up, thermo sweats, pants and overalls like I got on," Bailey said.
