Over a week after a rare blizzard blew into Southern California, San Bernardino’s mountain communities are still feeling its harsh effects.
As residents wait for state and county services, help has come from volunteers – and one another.
Homes and businesses in the mountain communities are still buried by 10-foot high snowdrifts, and on Sunday afternoon, heavy fog was rolling in, limiting visibility.
Many main roads into Lake Arrowhead and elsewhere are now passable, but the plows have left imposing walls of snow along the roadsides, further burying some residents’ driveways and homes.
On Sunday, access to the San Bernardino Mountains via Highway 18 was still being limited by authorities.
Still, Twin Peaks resident Cesar Lopez and his son Orlando were able to return to Cesar’s car, which had been left in a turnout on the highway and damaged by a snow plow. Somehow, they planned to try and drive it home.
In a parking lot beside Arrowhead Lake, members of Cal Guard’s Joint Task Force Rattlesnake assembled and prepared to shut off leaking gas meters, which are believed to have caused multiple fires in recent days. Other crews were at work removing snow from roads and buildings.
In Blue Jay, a community south of the lake, resident Anthony Trefethen walked home after buying groceries at a Rite-Aid on Highway 189. He also bought food for his neighbor, Connie, who he said was snowed in and on a 48-hour waitlist to be evacuated.
“She said, ‘How about some milk?’ I said, ‘Ok,’ ” Jay recounted. “I just threw her some food over the (snow) berm,” he said. His own groceries included frozen pizza, ramen and cognac.
Just past the Rite Aid, residents lined up at the Lake Arrowhead Branch Library to receive donated food and supplies. The library was one of several locations distributing food on Sunday, said resident and organizer Meghan Hardin-Griffiths. The distribution efforts are volunteer-run, with some help from the fire department, she…
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