For 27 hours Friday and Saturday, the winds were howling outside and their temporary home was getting colder and colder.
Stuck without heat or electricity at the VIVE shelter for homeless immigrants in East Buffalo were about 150 asylum seekers from at least 15 countries, including about 60 children and six pregnant women.
Dr. Myron Glick, chief executive officer of the Jericho Road Community Health Center, which runs the VIVE facility at 50 Wyoming Ave., put out an appeal for help.
It finally came Saturday afternoon.
"Scott Bieler, president and CEO of West Herr Automotive Group, sent a team of electricians on a pay loader pulling a large generator from Hamburg to VIVE," Glick said in an email. "This 15-mile journey took about four hours. The roads in Buffalo are almost impassable due to the deep snow and many abandoned vehicles along the way."
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Glick had asked The Buffalo News to help him issue a public plea Saturday morning for someone to help restore power at VIVE.
He said storm conditions had prevented emergency crews from reaching the facility near the intersection of Wyoming and East Ferry Street. Staff wanted to evacuate all the residents, he said, “but there’s nowhere to go and no way to get them there.”
"We are deeply grateful for this act of love by Scott and team," Glick said Saturday afternoon. "I am also grateful for our Jericho Road Staff members, including the VIVE Director, Matt Tice, who are putting in these long hours staying on duty at VIVE."
Chief Program Officer Anna Mongo said in the email: "I also wanted to add a shout out to Scott Butterfield, he is a newer employee and may not be familiar to many of you. While Matt was holding the overall building together, Scott was holding the kitchen together. This means he got three meals a day out to 150 people without electricity, he could only use the stovetop! He had to crack the windows in the kitchen to let in the arctic air because there was a carbon monoxide risk."
VIVE offers food, lodging and other assistance to people from other countries who are seeking asylum in the United States or Canada.
“We usually have people from 15 or 20 different countries there, people who are fleeing from horrible situations in their home counties,” Glick said earlier Saturday. “These are people who have been toughened by what they have been through so far, but most of them have never seen a snowstorm anything like this.”
Glick said the storm has been difficult for not-for-profit organizations like Jericho Road that provide health services to people in poverty.
“Many of our patients live in old, drafty homes. They cannot get emergency medical services because of the storm and cannot get to us,” Glick said. “This is a very dangerous situation for Buffalo.”
