12 found dead in snowed-in San Bernardino as residents seek answers
Twelve people have been found dead in Southern California's San Bernardino County a week after back-to-back winter storms dropped over 100 inches of snow in some locations.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said Thursday that at least one death was weather-related, but the other 11 were not considered storm-related and that all found bodies are awaiting autopsies.
"So far, we can only confirm [one], a traffic accident, as weather-related," Gloria Huerta, spokesperson with the Sheriff's Department, told AccuWeather. "The preliminary information in the other deaths does not indicate they are weather-related, but those investigations are ongoing."
Frustration with county authorities has continued to grow in San Bernardino County, citing a lack of preparedness and slow aid.
Running Springs resident Kandice Watson knew there would be a storm in early March, and as someone who grew up in Montana and knew how to prepare to be snowed in, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
However, the storm that struck on March 1 was different. By the end of the storm, the highest measurement of snow on the ground around Running Springs measured up to 150 inches -- or 12.5 feet -- of snow.
"There was no preparedness," Watson told AccuWeather's Senior Content Producer Monica Danielle about planning by the county. "I've lived here off and on since '94, so I've seen some big storms up here, and I've seen the way that they're handled in years past and, historically speaking, this is very different."
San Bernardino was one of the 13 counties where California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency due to the impacts of the back-to-back storms. However, residents have expressed grievances over both slow aid and a lack of communication from the county as food in pantries slowly dwindles.
"We haven't been told anything," Watson said. "We just keep getting told that we're being sent help and that it's on its way, but we don't ever see anything. We see 20 dozers on the side of the highway, but they sit there for days and we sit in our houses."
AccuWeather reached out to the county public information officer Wednesday and is still awaiting a response.
The frustration was compounded by the fact that Running Springs is an unincorporated town, meaning it doesn't have elected officials at the town level and has different resources than nearby cities such as Big Bear, located 15 miles to the northeast.
"We as a community rely on the county to help us in extreme situations," Watson wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday, a day following the second snowstorm. "When that fails, it falls to higher government. When that fails ... we are stuck in our homes for the last six days."
In the post, she had added at the time that she hadn't heard a snowplow drive by since Monday, Feb. 27.
The community itself of Running Springs, Watson told Danielle, wasn't able to take on such a storm without help clearing the roads. While food distribution sites were opened in Running Springs, Wrightwood, Crestline and Blue Jay, the issue of getting to supply sites remained a barrier for many.
"We have a community up here that started with mostly elderly [people]," Watson said. "A lot of people come up here to retire, and they're not as ambulatory as other people. And then we also have the group that came up during COVID that's small families, small children and babies trying to get out of the cities."
Then there are the families who came to stay at an Airbnb home for a weekend getaway.
"They've been here for two weeks with their small children and pets with no food," Watson said. "They came to vacation rentals without supplies. They don't have firewood at these Airbnbs and the Airbnbs were not prepared for them to have any kind of snow like this."
Five miles northwest of Running Springs, Jennette Davis runs short-term rental homes for families looking for a mountain retreat at Lake Arrowhead, where she also lives. Davis herself, however, has been displaced from her home for nearly two weeks due to the snow.
On Thursday, Feb. 23, Davis had driven down the mountain for an event, believing she would be able to return by Sunday, but then the storms arrived.
"We knew that it was going to be snowing, but we thought we'd be back by Sunday and didn't have any idea that it would be as crazy as it was," Davis told AccuWeather National Reporter Emmy Victor.
The National Weather Service recorded 100 inches of snow on the ground 1 mile north-northeast of Lake Arrowhead, an unincorporated community in San Bernardino County over 60 miles northeast of Los Angeles, by March 3.
Her daughters had remained in the town and gotten snowed in, however, and had been communicating with Davis.
"They were used to them plowing and keeping the roads throughout the night. You always hear the plows," Davis said. "There was not one plow that went by. Day three, and still nobody had heard any plows and nobody could get out."
Lisa Griggs, one of the many people who has been stranded in the San Bernardino mountains, told AccuWeather late last week that supplies were being flown to Lake Arrowhead by helicopter due to roads in the area being impassable due to snow. Griggs also said that food supplies were low in part due to the roof of a grocery store that collapsed under the weight of the snow.
Five miles from Lake Arrowhead, the community of Crestline received 16 inches of snowfall on both Feb. 25 and Feb. 26 as the first storm rolled through the area, followed by an additional foot of snow on March 1.
"It's frustrating for us," one Crestline resident told CNN. "For the people who can't get their medicine, I'm sure it's scary for them. People that can't get food, yeah, they can't get out."
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Members of the California National Guard and CAL FIRE crews remove snow around homes, from roofs and driveways in Crestline, California, in the San Bernardino Mountains last weekend, after many residents were stranded due to the heavy snow. (CAL FIRE) |
By the past weekend, CAL Fire crews were digging out Crestline residents from walls of snow that had barricaded the doors of homes as well as removing snow from roofs, gas meters and driveways. The NWS measured 100 inches of snow, just over 8 feet, on the ground 1 mile east of Crestline. Photos from the department showed a crew digging out a house where the snow had blocked most of the door. Walls of snow flanked the freshly cleaned road, and crews were photographed clearing a pathway to a house in waist-high snow.
"Together, a total of 165 residents in Crestline have been contacted to ensure that gas meters, driveways and vehicles are accessible & free of snow, medical issues are addressed and meals distributed," the CAL FIRE San Bernardino Unit Public Information Office wrote over Twitter. "Firefighters were able to safely evacuate eight residents yesterday, taking them to Goodwin's Market where the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Deputies shuttled them to the Red Cross Shelter."
The department added that about 30 cases of meals were distributed to residents in need, and one resident was transported by a ground ambulance to a local area hospital.
"I believe that they're probably doing all that they can," the Crestline resident told CNN. "This is a mess. I think they're doing what they can, honestly. We've never had to deal with this before, so it's a first time."
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San Bernardino County firefighters were assigned to emergency responses, snow removal and infrastructure improvement assignments over the weekend. (Twitter/@SBCOUNTYFIRE) |
Additional reporting by AccuWeather Senior Content Producer Monica Danielle and National Weather Reporter Emmy Victor.
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