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Austinites stay in both official and unofficial warming centers opening their doors—and hearts—to those stuck in the cold

The Palmer Events Center has been a warming center for cold Austinites all week. (Laura Figi/Austonia)
Having been without power since Monday, Angela Salva and Jordan Carter said staying at the warming center at the Palmer Events Center is better than being left in the cold during one of the coldest storms in Texas history.
"(It's as) comfortable as you can be on a cot," Carter said. "They gave us food. It's not the best food and it's cold but it's edible."
The pair have been without water, gas and electricity since Monday. It isn't a fix-all—the couple is missing out on needed work—but they are thankful to have a place to stay.
"Hopefully we'll go home—that's what I want to do," Salva said. "We don't want to make this our hotel."
Warming stations and shelters have been open all week, having to adjust to power outages and water shortages, but nevertheless providing a warm place for Austinites to go in the midst of an intense winter storm. A full list of city shelters can be found here.
The City of Austin Homeland Security and Emergency Management Communications Manager Bryce Bencivengo said warming centers and shelters are trying to get Austin's most vulnerable to safety.
"We're planning to keep them open as long as they're needed," Bencivengo said. "We're acquiring things as we need them, you know, some of them lose water so we got to get porta-potties, some of them get power so if we can move people around we do it, if not we can put them on a generator. Resources change every day and we're meeting them and doing the best we can."
With over 45,000 people still without power and warming centers all over the city filling to capacity, local businesses are stepping up to the plate to warm the community. From breweries to yoga studios, business owners are offering a friendly hand to their neighbors.
The Brewtorium Brewery and Kitchen, located at 6015 Dillard Circle, has been offering what little resources it has to the community since Wednesday: water and electricity while it lasts.
Joe, a brewer at the restaurant who declined to give his last name, said the restaurant is taking things day-by-day, not knowing how long the electricity or water will last. Plus, they can only take in 50 people at a time for COVID-19 safety concerns.
Wednesday, Joe came in to run the restaurant by himself. But Thursday, he has help from other employees.
"It was a slow trickle, which was great," Joe said. "We're really hoping to keep it as a slow trickle because we have limited resources."
Similarly, Yoga East Austin doesn't have much to offer other than a warm room, water from the tap and a few outlets, but they are giving what they can—and it's more than what people have had in this winter crisis. Since its heat is powered by natural gas, the studio has even had owners sleep there to escape the bitter cold.
Gabriel, a teacher at the studio who declined to give his last name, said they are just trying to help people get out of the cold.
"We have a large yoga room, where people can just hang out in if they need to be warm for a few hours," Gabriel said. "We just figured today we take a pause on class and make the space available to people who needed it."
You can view a more complete list of businesses acting as warming centers here.- Tell us about your experience in this winter storm - austonia ›
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Popular
(Bob Daemmrich)
Hours following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that guaranteed a constitutional right to an abortion, on Friday, about 1,000 people gathered in Republic Square with signs calling for change.
The rally, organized by the group Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights Texas, started at the federal courthouse on Republic Square on Friday at 5 p.m. before the crowd marched to the Texas Capitol. More protests are expected to ensue over the weekend.
People showed up with all types of signs like Mindy Moffa holding up, "Keep your filthy laws off my silky drawers."
Austin joined cities across the country that saw protests for a women's right to an abortion after the ruling.
According to a recent UT poll, 78% of Texas voters support abortion access in most cases.
Sabrina Talghade and Sofia Pellegrini held up signs directed at Texas laws. A Texas trigger law will ban all abortions from the moment of fertilization, starting 30 days after the ruling. When state legislators passed the trigger law last summer, it also passed laws for more protection of firearms, including the right to open carry without a permit.
Lili Enthal of Austin yells as around 1,000 Texans marched to the Texas Capitol.
From the Texas Capitol, Zoe Webb lets her voice be heard against the Supreme Court ruling.
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(Paxton Smith/Instagram)
Paxton Smith’s 2021 valedictory speech at Lake Highlands High School in Dallas wasn’t the same speech she had previously shared with school administrators. She dropped the approved speech and made a case for women’s reproductive rights after lawmakers passed the Texas "Heartbeat Bill.”
Her advocacy made news on NPR, YouTubeTV and in The Guardian. Just over a year later, the “war on (women’s) rights” she forewarned has come to a head as the U.S. Supreme Court voted Friday morning to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending constitutional protection for abortion access.
“It is up to the people to show up and show the courts and the politicians that we won’t sit back and let this happen,” Smith told Austonia Friday morning. “We will show up, we will fight back. Before, we were scared of them, now they should be scared of us.”
Now a University of Texas sophomore and abortion rights activist, 19-year-old Smith said she wanted to give the same speech in the “the most public way possible” to reach “as many people as possible who don't agree that I deserve this right.”
However, she says the response was “actually overwhelmingly positive” and supportive of her cause. According to a recent UT poll, 78% of Texas voters support abortion access in most cases.
The speech opened up further opportunities for activism: she advocated for reproductive rights at the International Forum on Human Rights in Geneva, interviewed with Variety magazine and spoke to tens of thousands at Austin’s Bans Off Our Bodies protest at the Texas Capitol in May.
Smith also serves on the board of directors for the Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project, a national nonprofit organization that helps fund abortions or medication abortion—like Plan C pills—in all 50 states. Most recently, Smith has been attending protests in Washington, D.C. leading up to the ruling.
“This is land of the free. This is where you get to choose how you live your life,” Smith said. “Overturning Roe v. Wade violates everything that we have come to believe about what it means to live in this country. I think a lot of people aren't willing to accept that this is a human right that is most likely just going to be gone for over half of the country within the next couple of weeks.”
Bracing for the next steps, Smith gave some tips for supporters:
- Find a protest to attend.
- “I would say invite somebody to go to those protests with you, invite a couple of friends, invite people into the movement,” Smith said.
- Talk about the issue on social media—use the platform you have.
- “Have these kinds of conversations where people can just talk about their fears and then find ways to go and advocate for yourself,” Smith said.
- Volunteer at a nonprofit near you.
“I feel like a lot of the reason things have gotten as bad as they have within the abortion rights world is that people are not making a scene, not protesting, not putting the effort into ensuring that the government doesn't take away this right,” Smith said. “I want to emphasize that if you're not doing anything, don't expect the best scenario, expect the worst because that's the direction that we're going in.”
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