Some residents stranded in a Southern California mountain community by heavy snowfall could be stuck for another week, officials said Friday.
A blast of Arctic air in late February produced a rare snowstorm east of Los Angeles in the San Bernardino Mountains, where thousands of people live in high-altitude forest communities or visit for year-round recreation.
The extraordinary snowfall buried homes and businesses, beyond the capabilities of snowplowing equipment geared toward ordinary storms.
Last weekend, all major roads leading up to the mountain were closed and have been open intermittently since then to residents and convoys of trucks loaded with food or other supplies.
The estimate by San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus was an improvement in the prospect of residents being stranded, which had previously been up to two weeks.
“We said we could push it up to two weeks, but due to the efforts of the country and the equipment behind it, we hope to push it down to a week,” he said at a press conference.
The sheriff and other officials say progress has been made, but they describe the difficult situation that, for example, has forced firefighters to reach the scene of emergencies such as fires in snowcats.
“The magnitude of this event is hard to fathom,” said state Assemblyman Tom Lackey. “You know, we think, ‘We’re in Southern California,’ but we’ve had flooding that’s really caused anxiety, frustration and hardship, especially for the victims and the people who are actually trapped in their own homes.”
San Bernardino County is one of 13 counties where California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency due to the effects of severe weather, including a large snowfall that collapsed roofs due to its excessive weight.
In the north of the country, mountain communities grappling with the situation have a small population and are more accustomed to significant snowfall.
Residents and tourists trapped in the San Bernardino range have taken to social media to share their plight and wonder when the plows will arrive.
Shelah Riggs said the road she lives on in Crestline has not seen a snowplow for eight days, leaving people in 80 homes along the road impassable. Usually, the plows come every day or two when it snows, he said.
“We are covered by five or six feet (1.5 or 1.8 meters); nothing can get out of the way,” he said in a telephone interview.
Riggs, who lives with her 14-year-old daughter, said everyone is working to keep snow and ice off their decks from collapsing and to keep gas vents in their homes clear.
He said the county’s response was “terrible” and that “people are really angry.”
Devine Horvath, also of Crestline, said she and her son made the 30-minute walk down the street to check on a neighbor — a trek that normally takes just a few minutes.
Horvath said he was lucky to get to a local grocery store before the roof collapsed a few days earlier, but was unable to get out of the street.
“I’m getting more tired every day,” he said.
The sheriff sought to reassure people that help is on the way even if people haven’t seen the plow yet.
“We’re going to dig you and we’re coming,” Dicus said. “We are making incredible progress. I saw this from the air yesterday. The roads are being cleared.”
Officials said crews were dealing with deep snow, requiring front-end loaders and dump trucks instead of regular plows.
California Department of Transportation official Jim Rogers said crews working 24-hour shifts have cleared more than 2.6 million cubic yards (1.9 million cubic meters) of snow from state highways.
Officials described many difficulties in reopening the smaller road, including buried vehicles and downed power lines making progress difficult. Residents are encouraged to mark the location of their cars.
The reopened road is only one vehicle wide with walls of ice on each side.
“We’re going to get married, and we’re literally using shovels to shovel out driveways to make sure that people have access to their cars,” said County Fire Chief Dan Munsey. “Because the roads have been plowed, you still have 10 feet (3 meters) of snow to deal with.”
More snowcats were brought in, along with California National Guard crews who normally work with the Wildfire Resilience Task Force & California Wildfires on wildfires. Crews will help shovel snow.
While heavier snow will arrive in Northern California early Saturday, Southern California is expected to remain storm-free with the exception of light rain.
“The weather looks good for the next seven days, and that’s good news,” Munsey said.
About 80,000 people live in the San Bernardino Mountains part or full time. The district has not estimated the number of people currently in the mountains because many houses are vacation homes or rentals.
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