MACON, Ga. — Two men froze to death on Christmas Day in central Georgia, a county coroner said Monday.
According to Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones, the two men were homeless and died of hypothermia, WMAZ reported.
The men were identified as Larry Howard, 61, and Manuel Foster, 63, Jones said. Both men died in Macon, the television station reported.
Jones said Howard was discovered in an abandoned apartment, and Foster was found underneath an Interstate 75 overpass, WXGA reported.
Sr. Theresa Sullivan, the director of the Daybreak Center in Macon, said the Salvation Army is at capacity and has received a surplus of blankets, hats and gloves, WMAZ reported.
“I wake up in the morning and check my phone every morning to see what the weather is because I fear how our people are responding in the cold,” Sullivan told the television station. “We must continue. We must continue to figure out how we can address these issues even in the midst of obstacles.”
Charles Pope, the men’s shelter director with the Salvation Army, told WMAZ that his agency is forced to follow the guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I have a lot of sympathy for what took place, especially in 2020, a year where so much stuff has happened and COVID has affected a lot of us in different ways,” Pope told the television station.