Cold Weather Aiming for Doylestown

If you don't already know your neighbors well, today might be a good time to go knock on their doors and say hello.

Why? Because it's going to be pretty cold the next couple days, and one of the best ways to ensure that everyone is safe is just to pay attention.

"It's never a bad thing just to knock on the door and say hello and make sure everything's ok," Lt. Pat Penecale said Monday. "These are some simple neighborly things that seem to have gotten lost over time. This week's not a bad time to start them back up again."

Bitter winds and dropping temperatures are expected to sweep into the Central Bucks area tonight and linger through Wednesday. The National Weather Service is predicting temperatures of about 20 degrees overnight in Doylestown.

In light of that, has issued a "Code Blue" warning through Wednesday, activating an emergency shelter at Woodside Presbyterian Church in Yardley.

Doylestown doesn't have any such emergency shelters, Penecale said, but other means of help sometimes are available.

"There really are no shelters here," said Penecale, who, besides being a borough cop, also graduated from . "The Doylestown FISH group has, in the past, put people up at the , but it's important that people understand if they're trying to get in to a room, you need to call them before 9 p.m."

Doylestown FISH is a Christian aid group run by volunteers. Calls for help that come in from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. are answered by a service and, if appropriate, are forwarded to the FISH volunteer on-call that day.

But for most Doylestown-area folks, the cold can be handled by simple neighborliness – and preparation.

"If you know someone who may have concerns about heat, or staying warm or having food, it can't hurt to check on them," Penecale said, adding that people shouldn't forget to prepare for themselves.

"It's always good to make sure your own home is ready, that if you need oil, you've scheduled" a delivery, he said. "Sometimes those things get overlooked this time of year."

One other note: just because your car is warm doesn't mean you can dress in just a t-shirt when leaving the house in winter, Penecale warned.

"I feel like somebody's mom when I say this, but we see people doing this all the time," said the police lieutenant, laughing slightly. "They get in their cars in a t-shirt and then their car breaks down.

"To me, bottom line, this is just common sense stuff. Just consider the fact that it's going to be colder than we've been used to and plan accordingly."