Historic Feb. 2021 storm brought out Austin's 'Good Samaritan' neighbors, residents say

AUSTIN (KXAN) — When Amanda Pensack moved to Austin in late 2020, she anticipated plenty of sunshine and 70-degree days ahead.

Originally from Boston, she didn't anticipate the need for winter clothes in a warmer southern climate. When she saw snow in the forecast the week of Feb. 14, 2021, she didn't bat an eye — as far as she was concerned, a lifetime's worth of winters in the northeast had prepared her for snow days.

"When I saw some flurries and snowflakes in the forecast, I didn't panic at all. We get snow up here in Boston very frequently," she said. "And if it's a dusting or a couple of inches, we have snow plows that plow all the roads, and they salt the roads, and the grocery stores do not ever close, even in blizzards up here. So I didn't panic — I just thought it was a normal day."

That quickly changed.

"When we lost power around two in the morning the night of the storm, we woke up to six, seven inches of snow with no power, and the home we were staying in was on the water by a lake and not super well insulated," Pensack said. "So we realized very quickly that we did not pack adequately. We didn't have jackets and layers; we were expecting 70-degree temperatures."

What hit particularly hard, Pensack said, was the realization the grocery order she and her roommate had expected to arrive that afternoon wouldn't be coming. Lacking food, power and soon water following a citywide boil water notice, she said she began to enter crisis mode.

Enter a neighborhood Facebook group, where Pensack posted a request for food and water from anyone with supplies and the means of delivering it.

In came Austin residents Kami Irwin and Kim Pfeiffer, who spent the week of the storm driving hundreds of collective miles around Austin in a four-wheel drive vehicle, rescuing people and delivering food and supplies to those in need.

Within hours of Pensack making that post, fresh food courtesy of Irwin and Pfeiffer arrived at her door.

"They showed up at our doorstep, braving the snow, and they had four-wheel drive, which none of us had. And they were able to deliver us sandwiches and food along with water that same night," she said. "It was amazing to see strangers who I had never met before kind of risk their safety in order to come help and support others in the community like myself, and other families and households in need."

Reflecting on her drives through Austin during last February's storm, she described it as a snowpocalypse, given the sheer magnitude of abandoned cars on the roads and a ghost town-like feel throughout the city.

"It was all very emotional. [Pfeiffer and I] were driving 11 hours a day, all over Austin," she said. "So, you know, by the end of it, we were exhausted mentally driving on ice."

Some of those journeys included picking up a father's two daughters who were stranded at different locations and bringing them home, delivering food to Pensack and tracking down diapers and milk for desperate mothers needing to care for their babies. Despite her self-described "white knuckle" driving through the inclement conditions, she said the knowledge of people struggling compelled her to get out and give back.

"I felt like my heart was just, it needed to go help people. I didn't tell my parents I was doing this at first, mainly because they would have been like 'stay in your house,'" she said, laughing. "But I just was led to do it, and it made me happy to be able to help people, because it was a sad journey to see what people were going through."

Irwin and Pfeiffer, along with contributions from Pensack, helped raise $15,000 for Austin families in need in the wake of the storm. When the power came on, the headaches continued for some families left with mold, busted pipes, home damage and the need to replace expired food from powered down refrigerators.

And while she isn't wishing for another winter storm of that magnitude any time soon, one thing remains, Irwin said: In times of need, everyday people can and will pay it forward.

"It took the whole community to help everybody," she said.