By Cheri Mossburg
An elderly man survived on croissants, candy and biscotti for nearly a week alone in his car, stuck in the snow on a desolate California road.
Jerry Jouret, 81, set out from his mountain house in Big Pine, California, on Feb. 24 to return to his family home in Gardnerville, Nevada — just over three hours away in good driving conditions.
According to his grandson Christian, Jouret thought he could beat the impending snow storm. He was wrong.
During the drive, Jouret accidentally veered onto a smaller road and his SUV became stuck near Gilbert Pass, he told CNN.
Temperatures in the area dropped from the mid 30s into the teens overnight.
The mathematician and former NASA employee was ill-prepared for the weather, wearing only a light windbreaker, his grandson said. “He’s a pretty small,” Christian added. “He doesn’t have a whole lot of meat on his bones.”
A light quilt and a hotel bath towel were the only things Jouret had to keep himself warm, he said.
Described by his grandson as “a very smart man,” Jouret stayed with his car and conserved his vehicle’s gas and battery, only turning the SUV on periodically to warm up.
Roughly 3 feet of snow fell during the series of storms that pummeled the state over the course of the week. Many areas in California saw significant amounts of snow — an unusual occurrence for a state that’s unaccustomed to harsh winters. The dayslong brutal conditions knocked out power to thousands of homes, buried roads in snow and left many stranded, like Jouret.
Jouret survived by eating the few snacks he had in his car. He rolled down his window occasionally to eat snow.
Midway through the third day, Jouret’s car battery died while he was rolling the electric window back up, his grandson said. It remained open a few inches for the duration of his unfortunate adventure.
On February 28, the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office received “a callout for a missing person,” the office said in a Facebook…
Read the full article here
