With their cars buried by the Blizzard of ‘23, Crestline residents Noreen Mitchell and boyfriend Sal Contreras walked an hour to the parking lot of Goodwin & Son’s Market to gather bags of donated eggs, bread, frozen pizza and diapers on Friday, March 3.
“We were pretty much out of everything,” she said. “We were getting scared.”
Mitchell, 46, and Contreras, 52, loaded the bags into a red F-250 pickup as a man shoveled snow from the bed to make room. A stranger the couple had met in line was giving them a ride home.
“Not strangers anymore,” Mitchell said.
As supplies of necessities ran low in homes, stores and restaurants, neighbors continued helping neighbors as the government struggled to provide assistance to San Bernardino Mountains residents who described the days-long storm as the biggest they’d ever seen.
At 1:30 p.m., some 130 people were lined up in the parking lot to get food donated by Goodwin, the market whose roof collapsed under the weight of snow. One woman held two frozen pizzas on top of her head as she marched away, down the road.
Those were the fortunate ones; some told stories of digging themselves out of 5 feet of snow and then, with their cars inaccessible, walking to stores, where eggs, milk and bread were in short supply – if they were on the shelves at all.
Other residents, particularly elderly people, were not up to the physical task of shoveling snow. Neighbors picked up food and medicine for neighbors and relatives.
Wendi Otto, 59, picked up a house key that a friend had left at Hilltop Liquor so she could go feed a friend’s cats that had been left alone for a week.
“We hope that they are still alive,” Otto said.
Hilltop owner Bobby Chamas said he was frustrated that he couldn’t get supplies. He said he would have to wait for the morning or afternoon escorts up Highway 18 if he went down the mountain to pick up perishables.
“I can’t wait three to four hours in line,” he said.
At the Bear House…
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