Strangers who became heroes: The amazing ways people helped each other weather the Texas storm

AUSTIN, Texas – Ryan Sivley left his Austin, Texas, home on Feb. 15 to get a Mountain Dew and a pack of cigarettes, as snow began to blanket his city. But as the weather worsened and conditions quickly became dire, the routine errand turned into a grueling four days spent hooking straps and chains to hundreds of stranded vehicles, pulling their passengers to safety.

It was just shy of a year since a horrific motorcycle accident had left Sivley, 40, badly hurt, his injuries repaired with titanium rods. Yet the physical pain in his legs, back and hips was outweighed by the emotional guilt he’d endure knowing he could help someone but didn’t.

"If it was me and my kids in a car, even if someone else was in pain, I’d still hope they’d help me, opposed to going home and laying down,” he said.

As the snow came down and the power went out, it soon became clear that thousands would be stranded in freezing temperatures, many without food and supplies, or a way to salvation. Few had ever experienced a time like this, and, even with the knowledge of how to best weather such a storm, Texas infrastructure wasn’t built to sustain such conditions.

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That realization inspired many like Sivley to resist urges to hunker down and protect their own. Instead, they sought out strangers in need, offering whatever skills or resources they could offer.

People throughout Austin invited people into their homes to shower. They sent whatever cash they could spare to Venmo and GoFundMe accounts. They delivered baby diapers, firewood and bottled water.

'I'd panic': Why Ryan Sivley pulled stranded drivers to safety

That Monday evening, Sivley turned the corner headed toward a nearby gas station for his cigarettes when he saw the first car in a ditch. He got to work. By the time he pulled that guy out, another car would get stuck.

“It was flooded with people,” he said of the downhill road they were on.

His motorcycle accident last March put him in the hospital for months. The chronic pain had made him give up off-roading, which he'd loved to do in his spare time. But that experience, and two capable vehicles, would be put to the test over the long days that followed. Despite the pain, he’d free nearly 500 cars over the course of the week.

“You can’t call 911 because it’s too busy. You can’t call Lyft. You can’t call Uber. You have your wife and kids in the car. I’d panic,” he said.

One woman, who had her dogs in her car, had to be pulled miles to her family’s home, in reverse. Another family was pulled from a ditch around midnight after their car had lost power and the dad had a head wound that was bleeding, Sivley said.

More than doing his part, Sivley inspired others to help.

After his story was shared by other news outlets, he was contacted by other truck and Jeep owners, offering to help. While pulling cars himself, Sivley fielded calls and text messages from other stuck drivers and delegated the jobs out to the rest of the makeshift team.

A week after the storm, Sivley was still getting a couple of calls a day from people who had left their cars in ditches, wanting to know if he’d be willing to help. He was, of course.

'I honestly don’t know how my mom can cook so much food in such a short amount of time '

Enriqueta Maldonado has spent her life inside the walls of kitchens, preparing countless meals over the three decades she worked at a South Austin middle school.

“People like my mom — they are nourishing bodies and nourishing souls,” her daughter, Monica Maldonado, said. “You can taste it.”

After the storm hit, Monica Maldonado spent the first day or so in her apartment without electricity before making it to her mom’s, where there was electricity.

“When we first kind of determined that we had the resources to cook food, it was honestly like a no-brainer,” she said.

Monica Maldonado called on the pastor at Teri Road Baptist Church, who donated its entire pantry full of food. Nonprofit Do Good ATX set up an online portal to sign up for meals, provided the supplies and enlisted the help of volunteer delivery drivers.

And Enriqueta Maldonado got to cooking.

The first day she made breakfast tacos that were delivered to families staying in hotels. The next day, after someone donated several pounds of ground beef, she paired it with beans, mashed potatoes and fideo. Starting before dawn, she’d made enough meals to serve 75 people by 10 a.m.

“I honestly don’t know how my mom can cook so much food in such a short amount of time,” her daughter said. “It really is a gift.”

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A family made it their mission to find shelter for the homeless

The Ramirez family has been serving the community for than a decade – Ivan Ramirez bringing his two sons, Kevin and Alan, along to food drives and out-of-town missions as they grew up. When the pandemic began, the trio partnered with organizations helping homeless people — an area of need that has surged in Austin and throughout the country.

When the storm hit, their immediate concern was for the people who had just a tarp separating them from the elements, Alan Ramirez said. At the time, the shelters weren’t open yet, and once they were, they’d immediately become full.

“We agreed we needed to do something immediate to get these people somewhere safe and warm,” he said.

Ivan Ramirez and a close friend pulled from their personal funds to pay for 10 hotel rooms — costing about $1,600 — but they knew the need was greater.

Alan Ramirez started a GoFundMe campaign – which raised over $5,000 within five days.

They were able to put 48 people in rooms for four nights, in addition to giving them such supplies as sleeping bags and propane tanks.

All of this was made possible by “Austinites taking care of Austinites,” Alan Ramirez said.

“This winter storm made us stronger,” he said.

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Andrew Rincon, owner of CraigO’s Lakeway, had to close his pizza parlor down when the storm hit, with the roads too icy to ask his employees to come in.

He got a call from a friend in need of food, and Rincon realized he had a walk-in freezer full of inventory that’d go to waste if it weren’t cooked. After firing up the ovens, he was able to give pizzas to friends and neighbors who were without electricity.

The next night, he reached out to his neighborhood hospital — Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-Lakeway — and donated pizzas to feed 120 workers. Many had been forced to stay at work, unable to make the trek home.

Meanwhile, Tank Lopez, co-founder of a neighborhood Facebook group called 12:31, was fielding posts from people who needed a ride, using his Jeep to get them to safer conditions. One of his riders from that first day shared Lopez's Venmo account online. He woke up with $3,600 and within 10 hours, there was $36,000, he said.

He, along with a friend who helps run the Facebook page, quickly went to work figuring out to help as many people in the best ways. They found more people to provide rides, they filled a church parking lot with nonperishable items, they delivered firewood and they focused on feeding people a hot meal — and that's when two efforts to help those in need became one.

On Thursday, “a complete stranger” picked Rincon up from his home to deliver him to his restaurant, and unexpectedly returned that night to make sure he had a ride home. Throughout the next two days, more than 15 volunteers would show to help prepare pies — feeding an estimated 750 people.

The money sent to Lopez paid for the food and helped to support a business that had already endured a trying year.

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'I just felt like God was speaking to me': Rapper opens his heart and his wallet

Rapper Dominican Jay used to rock stages with the ATX super crew League of Extraordinary Gz. These days, he’s based out of Florida, but when the Austin native saw the winter storm hobbling his hometown, he knew he had to help.

“I just felt like God was speaking to me. And He was just like, you know, 'the tools are there, just get up and let's make it happen,'” said Jay, who declined to give his legal name.