Outreach intensifies to find shelter for homeless people caught in the path of the storm.

As dangerously frigid winter weather bore down on many parts of the United States on Thursday, efforts to offer shelter to people living on the streets were intensifying.

In Dallas, a shelter system that learned hard lessons during last year’s devastating winter storm sent a fleet of buses to pick up those needing housing as the thermometer fell toward an expected low of 13 degrees. In Des Moines, where it was minus 9 degrees, with a wind chill of minus 35 degrees, only one branch of the public library system remained open, serving as a warming center. An official with a church-based sheltering system was trying to funnel visitors there to more services as well as picking up people off the street.

And in Augusta, Ga., a church mission was planning to open its shelter’s doors early and preparing to pack in people, even spreading mats on the floors. “On a regular night, it might not be the difference between life and death,” said Patrick Feistel, the executive director of the Garden City Rescue Mission, which offers overnight beds for homeless men. “But it is now.”

Across much of the country, temperatures and wind chills far lower than normal are endangering even people used to sleeping in the cold, and leaving officials scrambling to find people and convince them to come inside, exposing the patchwork nature of many cities’ outreach efforts.

For Texas, the brutal winter storm of February 2021, during which hundreds of people died and millions were left without power for days, was a powerful demonstration of the need for better preparation, according to Daniel Roby, the chief executive of Austin Street Center, a shelter in Dallas. When the center opened a new facility this summer, he ensured that it was equipped with a massive generator.

“We’ve had folks that have come into the shelter after double amputations as a result of Winter Storm Uri,” Mr. Roby said, referring to last year’s storm. “Typically in Texas, we didn’t have that kind of weather. The past couple of years, we’ve had really bad storms, so we’re learning from that experience. We know now we need to do more than we’ve ever done before.”

A recent count indicated that Dallas had about 1,500 unsheltered residents, Mr. Roby said, though he noted that the number had most likely increased because of rising rents in the area. Through the Austin Street Center’s facilities, local churches and other sites around the city, more than 600 beds would be made available for people seeking shelter during the freeze, he said, with additional capacity available as needed.

“Because we weren’t anticipating snow, and snow is starting to fall, we’re gearing up for a busy night,” Mr. Roby said.

Josh Henges, the homeless prevention coordinator for Kansas City, Mo., was at Hope Faith, an emergency overnight shelter, on Thursday afternoon, as the temperature dropped below 0 degrees, with the possibility of the windchill reaching minus 40 degrees. He said about 214 people had come to the shelter as of 3:20 p.m. on Thursday. He added that among the most vulnerable were those suffering from severe mental illness or substance use disorder and that he had seen some people who weren’t wearing coats and one man who would most likely lose his nose from exposure. “They are not really concerned about the cold until it’s too late,” he said.

At the downtown branch of the Des Moines Public Library, a handful of people were slumped in chairs in a lobby and in a public room on Thursday afternoon, where three flat-screen TVs played the movie “Elf.”

Deirdre Henriquez, the outreach and advocacy director for Central Iowa Shelter & Services, walked from person to person. She was traveling around with two colleagues to the city’s various warming centers, as well as to makeshift camps along the city’s two rivers to offer dry clothing, medical care and transportation to a shelter. But not everyone who appeared to be in need was willing to accept the assistance. “There are many campers out there that think they might be able to withstand this weather, but this weather is just overwhelming,” she said.

In the library’s lobby, a man in a long coat and sweatpants held a loaf of bread wrapped in Jimmy John’s tissue paper. “Are you coming into the shelter?” Ms. Henriquez asked him. “I can drive you there right now.”

“Nope,” he replied, saying that he thought he would be handed over to the police for crimes he had not committed.

“Nobody’s going to call the cops on you,” she said. “It’s too cold out there. Will you think about it?”