AUSTIN, Texas — In the wake of a historic winter storm that brought widespread power outages, a lack of running water, and boil water notices, countless Texans have stepped up to help their community members in need.
Among them were the founders of an Austin-based bottled rainwater company called Heart Water, who realized they were in a unique position to help their community during the crisis.
Michael and Ylianna Dadashi spent the night on February 15 like so many other Texans – without power and running water in subfreezing temperatures.
Their biggest concern was their 1-year-old baby.
“It was so scary for us as first time parents because… he was freezing, we were all freezing," said Ylianna Dadashi. "The baby's hands were just so cold and I was trying to cover him as much as possible and just hold him all night.”
The next day they risked traveling on the icy roads to stay with family who did have heat and running water, but they ran into another problem when the City of Austin issued a boil water notice.
"You can't give the baby that water and you can't, you know, bathe in that water for the baby at least," said Michael Dadashi.
Luckily, they had another option.
Less than a year ago, the Dadashis launched their company called Heart Water, which sells bottled rainwater.
“Rainwater is a completely decentralized source of water. So, our facility was completely unaffected by the power outages and by the water crisis," said Dadashi.
The City of Austin bought all the pallets of Heart Water they had in their warehouse at the start of the storm, so despite the icy road, their staff continued production.
“They literally were like, risking their lives to go on the highway to go to the facility in Buda," said Ylianna Dadashi. "We're just so incredibly grateful because without them being able to run the machines and package everything, this wouldn't have been possible.”
With so many Austinites lacking drinking water, they knew they wanted to do more to help.
Their nonprofit partnered with Matthew and Camila McConaughey’s Just Keep Livin' Foundation to donate several pallets of Heart Water to Dell Children’s Hospital and Meals on Wheels in order to give back to the community and get drinkable water to people in need.
They say this crisis also is evidence of the need for a decentralized, sustainable source of water.
"This is going to happen again," said Michael Dadashi. "It's gonna happen with floods, it's gonna happen with earthquakes, it's gonna happen with other natural disasters. So rainwater and Heart Water’s technology is so vital to be completely decentralized, but to also be sustainable, so that we're not pulling from the groundwater supply, that's killing the ecosystem and causing so much threats to our community.”
Most importantly, they’re just grateful to be in a position to help.
“That's what we've been doing this whole week, we've been trying to focus on the community of Austin and really pour our hearts out," said Michael Dadashi.