A blizzard hit Erie County along other areas in New York in December 2022. This caused many people to have nowhere to go from their current location, some cars were in gas stations unable to be rescued by police. By this, Jay Withey who is a mechanic in Cheektowaga, got a call from one of his friends who was stuck in the quickly mounting snow, he called Jay to help him get out of the snow.

As Jay Withey wanted to help his friend, he went outside and started driving during the storm. While driving towards his friend, he saw multiple abandoned vehicles on the road. This man whose name was Mike was walking in sneakers and in a light jacket which Jay saw that he was cold and offered to come in the truck to be warm. As he drove past several snow drifts which were several feet tall, his truck got stuck in the snow twice. The first time he was able to shovel his way out but the second time he couldn’t do anything to free his truck. He felt hopeless, “I’m trying to dig myself out, but the snow is coming down just as fast as I’m shoveling,”. 

Jay began fearing for his life, he began to knock on peoples houses to let him stay the night, and to sleep on the floor, in return they get $500 dollars.“I plead with them, ‘Please, please can I sleep on the floor, I’m in fear for my life,’ and they say, ‘No I’m sorry’,” he said. Seeing that they declined his offer, he decided to call the police to see if they could come rescue him but due to the weather conditions they weren’t able to come, but he also found out that his friend was rescued.

Jay went back into his truck and the next day this lady who was outside was knocking on his truck’s window. He let her come inside the truck without the truck running, they managed to get into a school which had several people. Jay had 7 people, two who were in his car without food and the rest in their cars without fuel. When he broke into the school, he saw that the people inside had a dog with them. They managed to find food inside, along with mats in the gym so they could sleep in.

At the end of the day, Jay had rescued 20 people including himself during the blizzard that happened in New York. Police Chief Brian Gould told CNN that the side of town Jay was in, they were having trouble getting into that side, they were even shocked that he saved 20 people’s lives during this storm. He ended up being a hero and those 20 people created a group chat to stay in touch with Jay Withey and congratulate him for saving them.