Upon request, the city will even provide transportation from an individual’s house to the shelter.

“This is a basic procedure we’ve had in place for about 10 years,” said David B. O’Connor, emergency management coordinator for Cambridge. However, he said that the centers have never previously been forced to operate for so many consecutive days.

Yesterday brought some additional problems, though. The city’s cool shelter in Central Square lost power during yesterday’s 90-minute power outage, causing the building’s air conditioners to stop functioning.

The city was prepared to evacuate the center and transport individuals to alternate locations that still had electricity, but city officials decided against such a drastic move after learning that power would be restored relatively quickly, according to O’Connor.

While the city’s emergency efforts seem to be effective in keeping the city’s seniors safe during the heat—as the city had seen no significant increase in the number of medical emergencies in its senior population—O’Connor said the city has seen a “spike” in the medical emergencies in its homeless alcoholic population.

He noted that alcohol magnifies the effect of the heat on the body.

Temperatures are expected to go well into the 90s today as well.

“We’re still in for a scorcher,” Jackson said.