Posted on 01/24/2010 10:05:06 PM PST by BurbankKarl
Citing strained food and fuel supplies because of rough weather and tough road conditions, San Bernardino County officials Sunday evening closed visitors' access to the Big Bear Valley.
"It's been very difficult, if not impossible, for fuel trucks to get up the mountain and for trucks carrying food to get up to grocery stores," said David Wert, spokesman for San Bernardino County. "The gas stations are running out of gas, and the grocery stores are running out of food."
The closure comes at the peak of ski season and is a blow to local businesses and resorts that rely on heavy tourist traffic at this time of year. Only residents and those providing emergency services and food and fuel supplies will be allowed into the valley during the temporary closure, officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
http://www.bigbearscanner.com/ <—live Big Bear Scanner
Reading some of the Rimoftheworld.net boards, some areas still havent been plowed from the 5-6 feet of snow that fell during the storm...and those areas that have been plowed freeze overnight and leave rutted, iced roads.
The Arctic Circle area near Big Bear Dam has had 6 or more landslides....hence that closure so far.
Angeles Oaks has not had power since Friday...and landline and cellphone service is spotty, but DSL seemse to be working.
See post: Store or Starve A beginner’s guide to food storage
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2436113/posts
My skis, which I haven’t used since I moved to Ga. in 98, still have a Snow Valley tag on them. LOL
Here in MidAmerica we’ve been having a pretty heavy January thaw. I was visiting the Indianapolis area over the weekend, and on the drive back ( during the game ) we had temperatures of 53F, dropping to the upper thirties by the time we hit Chi-town. All our Christmas snow finally got rained out, although it did last a solid month. It’s just 32F here right now, and supposed to get colder, but it’s been a warm January here.
Yesterday I was up in Wawona in Yosemite Park, where there’s about 2-3 feet of snow. We couldn’t drive up to the cabin, even with a very substantial 4x4... though we came close. Had to walk the last 500 feet or so, which wasn’t bad at all considering what some people up there had to do.
The power has been out since Thursday, and a neighbor who lives up the hill was walking gasoline about 1/4 mile through 2 feet of snow to run their generator. They live up there and have kids. It’s a great place to visit but the regular winter power outages would be tough to take when you’re not up on vacation.
I don’t know who coined the phrase, but once I heard someone say: “Electricity is the high priest of false security!”
Those storms that dumped on Big Bear did this to Flagstaff.
January 18-23, 2010 Snowstorm in Flagstaff
Tucson even got snow in the lowlands.
sad.
Oops. Snow in Southern Arizona got down to 3,500 feet.
Wow, you own a cabin in Wawona?
How totally cool!
I used to spend summers working in Sequoia National Park, near Stoney Creek, and I always thought it would be cool to have a cabin in Wilsonia or Wawona.
Ed
Hmmm....
“...said he was concerned that the closures would eat away at his business.”
Don’t sweat it pal. The people you pay taxes to to keep the road open will still tax the hell out of you.
Shhh, we want Californians to think that living where it can snow means the roads and stores close and you starve and you can’t get gas.
I think we’re going to have a cold, snowy February.
So let me get this straight. Many are missing out on the year’s biggest income — their bread and butter; and the best snow in 40 years enticed a massive response that went more or less unsold. Those who made it in, or got stranded up there early got lucky, but the rest sat in traffic only to be turned away.
I know they’re not used to this much snow at once, but they had 2+ weeks of warning for this thing. If the towns are out of gas and food they have themselves and/or their city leaderships to blame.
There is a lady at work that has a cabin in Big Bear....and her nephew had a friend that wanted to use it this weekend.
I heard they spent 4 hours trying to get up hill, til they reached the point where CHP turned them around and it took 7 hours to get back to LA. They had chains and 4x4, and were still turned around (I guess they didnt leave at 2am like I would have)
Some of those highways had 20 feet of drifts on them.
Yeah, exactly. Get up there before the storm if you have a place to go!
So (just in time for Monday) they got it all open yet?
It belongs to a close relative who built it back in the 50’s and 60’s. One of my all time favorite places to hang out.
Ho cool!
I spent many a summer working in Kings Canyon and Sequoia national parks, and went up to Yosemite on my days off.
I used to love camping at Sunnyside walk-in campground, it was only 50 cents a day.
I loved Tuolomne Meadows, Horse Flat meadows, Chimney Rock, Hume Lake, Crystal Cave, man...for quite a long stretch of my life, the High Sierras were my life.
You’re blessed to be able to go to that place in Wawona...
Thanks,
Ed
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