Southern Illinois cooling centers open, but no seekers - KFVS12 News & Weather Cape Girardeau, Carbondale, Poplar Bluff

The heat wave sweeping across the Heartland has forced many communities to open up cooling centers for people seeking relief.

In Marion the city's library and the Marion Senior Citizen's Center have both been designated as cooling centers.

And on Sunday under one hundred plus degree temperatures the only cooling center was the senior citizens center.

So far in the four days it's been open not only single person has come in to beat the heat.

"This could be a good problem to have is to not have anyone here," said Donna Stotlar Marion's Emergency Management Director. "Hopefully everyone is learning how to take care of themselves. And how to prepare and be better prepared for emergency situations like this."

The City of Carbondale has opened one of it's large meeting rooms in the Carbondale Civic Center. And the city library is open during regular business hours Monday through Saturday.

But, in the past few days there has only been one person seeking relief from the heat in the cooling center at the civic center.

"It's just another opportunity for people to find a place to get cool," said Carbondale Mayor Joel Fritzler. "It's open anyway, we have maintenance people there doing maintenance on the building. So it's not really costing the city anything extra to have it open."

Both cities cooling centers will remain open throughout the week ahead as temperatures are expected to hover near or above one hundred degrees.

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