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A merciless cold crippled the Midwest on Wednesday, halting planes and trains, shuttering schools and prompting officials in Detroit, Minneapolis and Chicago to open emergency warming centers for the homeless and vulnerable. The bitter weather was believed to be tied to the deaths of at least eight people, including a man thought to have collapsed after shoveling snow and frozen to death in his Milwaukee garage. Hospitals saw a steady stream of patients reporting symptoms of frostbite. (Bosman and Davey, 1/30)

On the eve of winter’s coldest punch of the season so far, with temperatures due to plunge to low single digits, two of the thousands of homeless people in the nation’s capital, James Bernard and June Lewis, sat huddled in the shallow doorway of a stone building Wednesday and predicted they’d survive, because they always have. “We’re going to make it unless we die” was how Bernard, 46, put it. Lewis, 64, said, “If we die, we die.” (Duggan and Jamison, 1/30)

For the region’s most vulnerable — even those hardened to the Upper Midwest’s long winters — this polar vortex has been especially perilous. Karen Andro, director of Hope’s Home Ministries at the First United Methodist Church in Madison, has spent much of the past few days coordinating with other nonprofits and government agencies to arrange transportation, hot meals and warming centers for the city’s homeless residents. She reflected on past winters, when one person froze to death on the steps of a local church and another had a heart attack walking between shelters, and said that services here have improved. (Mettler, Horton, Wang and Fritz, 1/30)

Parts of the Dakotas and Minnesota dove to -27 degrees F or lower this week, according to the National Weather Service. That's not just uncomfortable — that kind of cold can be dangerous and even deadly, especially if you don't take precautions in how long you're out and how you dress. "I've seen patients develop frostbite within approximately 10 to 15 minutes after being exposed to these extreme temperatures," Dr. Jeff Schaider tells NPRs Ari Shapiro on All Things Considered. Schaider is chief of emergency medicine at the John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital in Chicago and the head of emergency medicine at Cook County Health. (Neighmond, 1/30)