As winds whipped and cloudy skies threatened to dump more snow Saturday afternoon on besieged Crestline, 76-year-old Mark Sue stood in his driveway, leaned on his shovel, and forlornly surveyed the monumental task ahead of him.
After five backbreaking hours, Sue had finally made a dent in extricating his white mini-van from the six-foot-tall snowbank that towered on each side of the vehicle.
Sue conceded the rescue mission would likely take at least another day to complete.
Then he waxed philosophical, saying there was little use in complaining about the powerful arctic blast that has paralyzed the mountainous region of San Bernardino County that locals affectionally refer to as “the hill.”
“It (the snow) is nature and God,” Sue, who has lived on Crest View Drive for about three years, murmured before picking up his shovel and dutifully returning to work.
For the most part, those living in Sue’s neighborhood seemed to be taking the snowy conditions in stride. While many vehicles remained buried, residents shut inside their homes seemed to be coping.
A 67-year-old bearded, bedridden man, who asked to be identified only as Bill, stuck inside a tiny house on North Village Lane said he isn’t intimidated by the unusual wintery weather.
Bill, who puffed on a cigarette and watched television while hooked up to a tank of oxygen, recounted a far worse snowstorm in the 1980’s that completely covered his house, plunging it into darkness.
After the storm cut electricity, Bill who has lived in Crestline for 33 years, opened a living room window, dug a makeshift igloo in the snow outside where he kept his perishable food from spoiling.
“I was good to go,” Bill said, adding that he is faring much better this time around because he had groceries delivered to his home before the snow started falling.
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Up the street from Bill’s home, 54-year-old Kenny Briscoe sat at a table inside the…
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