A blizzard swept through Southern California mountains, leaving 79-year-old Alan Zagorsky and his wife shut inside their home with snow blocking the door and stairways leading out.
They had enough food to get through the 10 days until volunteers finally arrived Wednesday to help clear roughly 10 feet of snow piled up outside their house in Lake Arrowhead.
The areas are popular destinations for hikers and skiers who arrive by twisting, steep highways that have been frequently closed because of icy conditions.
In a once-a-generation weather event, staggering amounts of snow fell in the San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountain ranges in late February, where thousands of people live in wooded enclaves. The San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department reported that 12 individuals were identified as deceased, and so far, only one was confirmed as weather-related.
Snow piled high above many homes’ first-floor windows, and residents who could get out trekked on foot to buy groceries from stores with near-empty shelves or picked up boxes of donated food at a distribution center.
Roofs collapsed, cars were buried and roads were blocked. The power went out in many communities, and authorities reported possible gas leaks and storm-related fires. Gov. Gavin Newsom declared emergencies in 13 of California’s 58 counties beginning March 1, including in San Bernardino County.
On Wednesday, he added 21 more, saying in a news release that the state “is working around the clock with local partners to deploy life-saving equipment and first responders to communities across California.” And as the state continued to dig out from the previous storms, another one was on the way.
Forecasters said an atmospheric river taking aim at northern and central California was expected to arrive as early as Thursday morning. The warm storm raised concern about a rapid snowmelt of portions of the state’s substantial snowpack, and authorities said creeks, streams and rivers could rise quickly, raising the threat of flooding.
On Wednesday, dozens of volunteers with the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Team Rubicon fanned out across the mountain communities to clear buried properties. In Lake Arrowhead, home to 9,700 people and at an elevation of 5,175 feet, many roads were plowed Tuesday for the first time in 10 days, and some residents grumbled about the slow response. San Bernardino County officials estimated more than 90% of county roads were plowed as of Tuesday night.
About 8 miles to the west, along a winding two-lane road, volunteers were also digging out homes in Crestline, a working-class mountain community of 9,300 residents. Big Bear City received more than 6.6 feet of snow in a seven-day period, the most since those records have been tracked, said meteorologist Alex Tardy, with the National Weather Service in San Diego.
»Snowstorm Shuts Down California«
↯↯↯Read More On The Topic On TDPel Media ↯↯↯