LAKE ARROWHEAD, Calif. —After a snowstorm swept through the Southern California mountains, Alan Zagorsky, 79, was cooped up inside his home with snow covering the doors and stairs.
He and his wife had enough food for 10 days until volunteers arrived Wednesday to help clear about 10 feet of snow that had accumulated in front of their Lake Arrowhead home. They were low on blood pressure medication, but teams arrived a day early to stock up on supplies in the exclusive mountain community where Zagorsky has lived for more than two decades.
"We've seen a lot of blizzards, but that's not a sure thing," he said as the crew exited the driveway in the mountains east of Los Angeles. “Right now they are trying to find a place to put these things."
In late February, the San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountain ranges, where thousands of people live in wooded enclaves, experienced a once-in-a-generation amount of snowfall. The locations are well-liked vacation spots for hikers and skiers who travel there via winding, precipitous highways that have frequently been closed due to icy conditions.
Residents who could leave their homes trudged on foot to grocery stores with nearly empty shelves or picked up boxes of donated food at a distribution center. Snow piled high above many first-floor windows.
Roads were blocked, cars were buried, and roofs collapsed. Authorities reported possible gas leaks and storm-related fires, and power outages affected numerous communities. Beginning March 1, Governor Gavin Newsom proclaimed emergencies in 13 of California's 58 counties, including San Bernardino County.
In order to uncover buried properties, dozens of volunteers from the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Team Rubicon spread out across the mountain communities on Wednesday. After being cooped up in their homes for more than a week, a group of ten people cleared their neighbours' driveways and walkways with shovels and snow blowers.
Many roads in Lake Arrowhead, California, which has a population of 9,700 and is located at an elevation of 1,575 meters (5,175 feet), were plowed for the first time in ten days on Tuesday, and some locals complained about the slow response. As of Tuesday night, according to San Bernardino County officials, more than 90% of county roads had been plowed.
Volunteers were also excavating homes in Crestline, a working-class mountain community of 9,300 people, about 8 miles (13 km) to the west along a winding two-lane road.
Don Black observed a group of workers clearing his neighbor's property while using shovels. He was in awe of the enormous 12-foot (3.6-meter) snow berms that the roads' snow ploughs had created.
Black, standing next to a pile of snow that completely engulfed his pickup truck, declared that this was the worst storm he had experienced in 34 winters.
The town library's roof was removed by a group of state firefighters. There was a line of locals waiting to pick up food boxes at a distribution center as they walked along freshly plowed streets.
According to local meteorologist Alex Tardy with the National Weather Service in San Diego, Big Bear City nearby received more snow than 6.6 feet (2 meters) in a seven-day span, which is the most since records have been kept.
Another storm was approaching as the state worked to recover from the earlier ones. An atmospheric river targeting northern and central California was predicted to arrive as early as Thursday morning, according to forecasters. Communities in the San Bernardino Mountains were probably safe from another significant snowfall.
Concerns about a quick snowmelt of some of the state's substantial snowpack were raised by the warm storm. Authorities warned that rivers, streams, and creeks could quickly rise, increasing the risk of flooding.