LAKE ARROWHEAD, Calif. – A winter wonderland just ahead of spring blasted most parts of the United States in the past few weeks, from the Nor’easter in the northeast to a rare blizzard in southern California.
In the San Bernardino Mountains, where residents are used to wildfires, not snow storms, some are still trapped, and others are left without a home three weeks since up to nearly 10 feet of snow pounded homes, businesses and roads. At least 13 people died. And now, a slushy mess and slow melting snow is what’s left.
The last time the area received similarly significant snowfall was in 1991 during the “March Miracle,” when up to six feet of snow fell.
“We do not get blizzard warnings in this area. I wouldn’t even say it happens rarely,” said Eric Sherwin, the public information officer with the San Bernardino Fire Department.
NOR’EASTER BRINGS HEAVY SNOWFALL TO NORTHEAST, NEW ENGLAND WITH COLD EXPECTED TO CONTINUE
San Bernardino County, the largest in the United States, stretching more than 20,000 square feet, hasn’t been under a blizzard warning in decades.
“This storm was very different. We’re looking at record level snowfalls in many of these communities, such that life pretty much ground to a halt,” Sherwin said.
About 15 miles east of the hardest hit communities from this year’s storm is Big Bear Valley. Residents were buried under over five feet of snow in late January 2010. From the winter season’s first storms in November 2009 to March 2010, that area received nearly nine and a half feet of snow. In comparison, mountain communities in the San Bernardino National Forest were trapped in the same amount of snow in days.
One Crestline, California, woman and her husband woke up to a wall of white surrounding their home.
“We had two gazebos on our decks just smashed to smithereens on top of all of our patio furniture, and a fire ring and all kinds of things just took everything out. That sound really brought us up. I thought, Oh my gosh, what’s next?…
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