AUSTIN (KXAN) — With freezing temperatures forecast, the city of Austin has activated its cold weather shelter plan.

Capital Metro and the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Team are asking people in need of shelter to go to the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless (ARCH) downtown, at 500 E. 7th St., where they will then be taken to a shelter. A Freeze Warning has been issued for the Austin metro counties and all counties east of Interstate 35. High temperatures in the 30s and 40s are forecast across the KXAN viewing area Thursday and Friday.

The ARCH determines how many people will go to which location and then notifies CapMetro. The agency then sends a bus to transport people to a shelter in the evening and then again to bring them back to ARCH in the morning.

Last winter, Capital Metro sent buses twice, both in mid-January. Thursday night is their first time this winter.

KXAN’s First Warning Weather Team issued a winter predictor last month: be prepared for possibly more ice and snow.