

Highways have intermittently been open to residents as conditions permit, but authorities warn that anyone who goes down may not be allowed back up.Īs of Sunday, San Bernardino county estimated that it had made nearly 80% of county-maintained roads in the area passable, meaning that at least one lane was open. Photograph: David Swanson/ReutersĪ national guard unit that normally fight wildfires was called in to use its shovels to help clear snow.Ĭlearing of state routes has been done by California department of transportation equipment. Ice covers communication towers as massive amounts of snow trap residents of mountain towns in San Bernardino county, California. “We have to climb over 10ft (3-meter) snow berms and carry them through deep snow down 60-ft (18-meter) driveways. But it’s not as simple as just dropping the boxes at the front doors, he said. Most of his neighbors’ properties were still buried.īraggins and his wife have been packing their Jeep with boxes of food from the distribution center and delivering them to neighbors. His street in Crestline was plowed and he was able to dig out his driveway. RecoveryĪuthorities began bringing in more snow removal equipment, organized convoys of grocery trucks, set up distribution centers and requested donations of non-perishable foods, water and general supplies.Īndrew Braggins told the Associated Press that he is one of the lucky ones. Roof collapses due to the weight of snow were reported, including a grocery store in the community of Crestline. Highways were closed to all but emergency vehicles, frustrating residents who had been away when the storm hit and were forbidden to head back up to their homes. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty ImagesĪ shortage of tire chains further hampered the response.
#California snow storm totals series
Residents attempt to shovel out their driveway after a series of winter storms in the San Bernardino Mountains in southern California. San Bernardino county authorities said the snowfall was so great it exceeded the capability of plows to clear roads, requiring earth-moving equipment and dump trucks to pick up and move snow.
#California snow storm totals free
Residents found themselves unable to leave their homes or vacation rentals, much less free their vehicles. Gavin Newsom, the state governor, declared emergencies in 13 of California’s 58 counties beginning 1 March. Until now, the most snow recorded in a seven-day period there was 58in (147cm) in 1979.


Photograph: Marty Bicek/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstockīoth mountain ranges routinely have winter snowfalls, but what looked like the foundation for epic downhill ski days became a nightmare.īig Bear City received 80in (203cm) of snow over a seven-day period, the most since these records have been tracked, according to meteorologist Alex Tardy, with the National Weather Service in San Diego. Highway 108 is closed just above Strawberry, California, with several feet of snow covering the road. In an extremely unusual event, staggering amounts of snow fell east of Los Angeles in the San Bernardino Mountains and the adjacent San Gabriel Mountains, where thousands of people live or visit communities at high elevations reached by windy, steep highways. Rare blizzard warnings went into effect in late February in the mountain ranges of southern California as an arctic air mass plunged down the west coast, plastering California’s coast ranges and the Sierra Nevada. Tello said his snowshoes used to be placed over his fireplace as a decoration, but now he is using them to help his neighbors and seniors not able to leave their homes. Pablo Tello, another Crestline resident, picked up a replacement for a broken shovel so he could get back to helping dig snow away from homes, with special attention to buried gas lines that have been linked to several fires. “Imagine not having any food in your house after being trapped for 13 days,” resident Michelle Calkins told KTLA-TV. Residents waiting in line to receive donated food outside the local grocery store in Crestline in southern California on Friday.
