CNN news 2010-01-13 加文本

2010-01-13 cnn

SAVIDGE (voice-over): Darkness falls in St. Louis and with it, the temperature.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Blowing snow as well, the wind chill index five below downtown at the arch.

SAVIDGE: And at the New Life Evangelistic Shelter the homeless have begun showing up for the night. But despite the bitter cold, there are some who refuse to come in. They're the ones that the Reverend Larry Rice wants to find.

(on camera): Do you try to bring them in or do you just try to look after them in place where they are?

REV. LARRY RICE, NEW LIFE EVANGELISTIC CENTER: We often look after them in place letting them know that we have a place available that they can come. But as meager their belongings may be and as primitive as their place may be, that's still home.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): Our first stop is an abandoned home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to check on these people regularly. OK? SAVIDGE: That's not abandoned at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, how are you doing there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. How are you all doing? Staying warm, are you?

SAVIDGE: Inside we find a community of young people in their teens and 20s.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you all doing? I've got a new coat here for you. Can you all use a sleeping bag?

SAVIDGE: Thanks to roaring fires and gas heaters it's warm. For Susan Fanter, it's heaven compared to the street.

(on camera): How many people are in the house here?

SUSAN FANTER, HOMELESS WOMAN: Fifteen, 20. I don't know. I haven't really -- I never count.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): At the next stop, we realize Susan was right about the heaven part. This is where she was living, in a tent, in a tunnel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, Larry?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Larry Rice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes.

SAVIDGE: And as the temperature heads toward zero, we find others still here.

(on camera): What do you do to stay warm?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My lantern.

SAVIDGE: That lantern is your source of heat?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. When I have fuel for it.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): Next door, the tent has no ceiling.

(on camera): And why don't you go to a shelter?

DAVID HUCKSTEP, HOMELESS MAN: We prefer to stay out here. We don't like to be around a whole bunch of different people that we don't know. We're kind of like a small group of people that get along good.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): A small group of people living in the Stone Age just beneath the modern American city. Surviving a night so cold it could kill