Editor's Note: This story first appeared in The Daily Texan's March 2 print edition.

Kat Zhang, living in one of the few buildings around campus that still had running water during the winter storm, wanted to help her peers. She recruited a few friends and created a Google spreadsheet where students could offer water to those without.

Within 24 hours, Zhang’s water volunteer program reached its 120 volunteer capacity. 

As nearly half of the state’s population was affected by water infrastructure problems and tens of thousands of Austin residents were left without running water, UT students scrambled to find reliable water sources around campus.

Released Feb. 19, two days after the citywide boil notice, the spreadsheet included volunteers who had experience driving in snow to deliver water, had functional bathrooms and were able to provide running water.  

“We got a lot of traction which is really awesome because hopefully we got to help more people that way,” said Zhang, a Chinese studies and public relations sophomore. “It just kind of started snowballing from there.” 

Most students in need were directed to a volunteer student’s apartment where they could pick up boiled water or fill up their own jugs.

Government freshman Joseph Kudler was in charge of social media outreach and said the two days leading up to the program’s release were hectic. From Feb. 17-19, the team created a water accessibility survey, informational graphics and a volunteer spreadsheet.

“A lot of what I did was just posting on every social media platform I could to get the word out,” Kudler said. “I sent it in every group chat I was in, every GroupMe I was in, put it on Twitter and Instagram.”

Kudler, who is from White Plains, New York, said he had never experienced a state of crisis on par with what Texas went through. He said he used his experience dealing with winter storms to help students who were less equipped. 

“Everything was iced over, so I took my hammer and I just broke away the ice on the hill in front of the PCL,” Kudler said. “Everyone was slipping down (the hill) and so I created a walkway so people wouldn’t slip and slide.”

One of the volunteers, Divya Nagarajan, a public health and biochemistry sophomore, said complete strangers were coming in and out of her West Campus apartment after reaching out to her through the form for access to running water.

“I was a little more hesitant about that because we’re pretty COVID conscious,” Nagarajan said. “But I felt like it was pretty important, especially when I know (that) on campus, for a while, the bathrooms also stopped working.” 

Although the boil water notice is no longer in effect, Zhang said she is still coordinating water distribution. Nagarajan said she will continue to provide water for students whose pipes have burst over the next few days. 

"It was just nice to be able to help out in whatever way we could, since we were so lucky that we did not really lose our power or water,” Nagarajan said.