A car dealer dragged a generator through the snow in order to power a shelter.
After Buffalo was hit by a storm, Vive Shelter lost power for 27 hours.
The shelter's founder said the dealership could have saved them.
When a shelter in Buffalo, New York, was without power for 27 hours, its founder called a friend to see if he could help.
Anna Mongo, Chief Program Officer at the Jericho Road Community Health Center, told Insider that Vive Shelter's rundown building had its power cut just five hours into the deadly storm.
The temperature in the shelter dropped quickly as the wind chill hit well below zero degrees.
The shelter has never lost power.
She doesn't think that's the thing that felt most real in our preparations.
There was enough food for all 150 people at the shelter and they all had their medication with them.
The residents of Vive were left without power for 27 hours.
The company's CFO offered his generator for the shelter after three or four people tried to drive in with four-wheel drive with high-power vehicles.
Everyone else got turned around because of the weather.
The founder and CEO of Jericho Road Community Health Center decided it was time to reach out to a good friend who might be able to help.
The roads were too bad for the team of electricians and generator to make it to the shelter.
Glick told the news outlet that he was stressed out.
Mongo said they all thought it was over, until he got a new solution to get Vive's power up.
"Scott called me again and said, 'We found a tractor with a scoop on the front that we're going to drag our generator into town on,'" Glick said.
The man followed through on his word.
The generator and a tank of diesel were dragged through the snow from New York to the shelter in Buffalo. The 15-mile journey took them four hours to complete as the roads in Buffalo are almost impossible due to the deep snow and many abandoned vehicles along the way.
It took 30 minutes to get the generator up and running, but once it was working, they didn't lose heat or power again. On Monday, the building's electricity was restored.
Mongo said they thought the power would be fixed immediately because of reports on the power company's website. The team at Vive knew they needed a generator when they realized there were no emergency services in the city.
It could have gone on for 27 hours without power if it wasn't for the intervention of Bieler.
The Jericho Road Community Health Center's Facebook page said they were grateful for the act of love by Scott and his team. The VIVE Director, Matt Tice, is one of the staff members that we are thankful for.
Vive Shelter houses refugees who are either waiting for an appointment with the Canadian Border Service or applying for US asylum.
Vive is over capacity according to the shelter's website There are 150 people from around the world living at the community health center.
The people were supposed to leave over the weekend, but were stuck in the storm. The shelter was unable to turn away additional families during the storm.
Mongo told Insider that Scott wasn't going to give up until we had a generator. A lot of people don't have that kind of resources.
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