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Homeless shelters across the state prepared Thursday for an influx of clients as temperatures plunged below freezing across North Carolina.

A night or two outside in subfreezing weather can be deadly for the homeless, said Amy Sawyer, coordinator of the city of Asheville’s Homeless Initiative.

“Even with the shelters doing overflow, there still will be some people spending the night outdoors,” Sawyer told the Asheville Citizen-Times.

Homeless shelters in Greensboro reported they, too, were prepping for the bitter cold night — although the agencies contacted Thursday said they weren’t actively looking to pull people off the streets.

Greensboro Police Chief Tim Bellamy said his command staff notified all officers to remain on the lookout for people in the city who might need assistance.

“We want them to look for abandoned vehicles to see if anyone is stranded in this weather,” Bellamy said. “If we find someone needing assistance, we’re going to give them a ride to the shelter.”

Near downtown before sunset, Dan Friendly rode his bicycle — packed with a sleeping bag and clothing — on his way to sleep overnight under a bridge. (See and hear more from Friendly)

Friendly said he has braved even colder nights in the North, and he relies on the help of a hot water bottle to spend the night safely.

“You should put boiling hot water in the bottle ... and keep it on your heart. That way, the blood circulates through your body heated,” Friendly said.

“It works very nicely, and it keeps you safe out in the cold,” he said. “It’s just tricks of the trade.”

Temperatures were expected to stay below freezing in the Triad again today with a high of 25 and low of 7 degrees in Greensboro.

In Asheville, Salvation Army spokeswoman Jill Carter said her shelter and others were using mattresses and pallets on floors to accommodate extra people.

Carter said blankets would be handed out to people who don’t want to come inside.

“We put people wherever we have floor space,” Carter said. “We’ll even have some in the lobby.”

Brian Alexander at Homeward Bound, which operates a day shelter for the homeless, said his group would allow people to stay inside longer and would give out hats, gloves and scarves.

Officials at the Durham Rescue Mission were visiting areas where homeless people congregate to try to persuade them to come to the shelter to stay warm, The Herald-Sun of Durham reported.

The weather system descended from a large, dry air mass that had been lingering over Alaska and northern Canada for a couple of weeks before moving south. The cold stretched from Montana to Maine and as far south as Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. Wind-chill advisories were issued in more than a dozen states.

Today was expected to be even colder in the Northeast. In northern Maine, where one ski area closed and others posted frostbite warnings, communities prepared for the likelihood that the thermometer would stay below zero until Sunday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.