Firefighters Mike Age and Aaron Thomas stopped at the listed address for a top-priority prescription drug delivery Friday, but were initially unable to spot the Lake Arrowhead home.
A 15-foot berm created from multiple plow trips blocked any view of, or access to, the home’s driveway, requiring scouting a perpendicular driveway to find the home on a long driveway. From that vantage point, firefighters found a more manageable path: over a 5-foot berm, under some trees, and across a snowdrifted side yard.
When Thomas sank nearly waist-deep in snow while trying to balance his insulin administration, Age called the house “one of the most difficult” they’ve tried to reach in the last week to deliver vital medicines in the county’s mountain communities. of San Bernardino. Many of the residents requesting deliveries have been snowed in for more than two weeks, some unable to safely navigate treacherous conditions or without the resources to do so after back-to-back storms dumped record amounts of snow on the region.
“Some people have a dead (car) battery, some people have a 14-foot berm … there are a lot of challenges,” said Leigh Overton, EMS supervisor for the San Bernardino County Fire Department, who helped implement the new prescription delivery program – a first for the county, and possibly the state. “There are many older people who need us. … We are reaching them just in time.”
Although the snow stopped falling weeks ago, life in the San Bernardino Mountains is far from returning to normal. More than a dozen residents were found dead in the wake of the series of storms that blocked roads and stranded residents, some unable to get out from behind several feet of snow. While all roads in the county have been cleared as of Monday, though many remain single lane, and mountain roads have reopened to the public, many local residents are angry and frustrated at the slow pace of recovery.
The drug delivery program is an attempt to offer some help to snow-covered residents until more of the record levels of snow can be removed.
Firefighter Aaron Thomas waits to pick up prescription drugs for Snowy residents at a pharmacy in Blue Jay on Friday.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
When Lexi Searles opened the door for the two firefighters on Friday morning, she was clearly shocked to see that someone had made it to her door, given the barricade.
“How did you get here?” Searles, 34, laughed in disbelief as he thanked firefighters for his 73-year-old mother-in-law’s insulin. “She really needed this.”
“I think we didn’t realize we were going to get stuck like this,” he said. “We knew it was going to be a pretty strong storm, but we didn’t realize it was going to be that strong.”
“We still have residents who have a variety of needs, prescription drugs, food, some are still in the process of assessing property damage,” said Eric Sherwin, spokesman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department. “There are still a number of residents whose properties are covered in snow.”
He called these residents “sheltering in place,” not by choice, but with many roads and cars still buried and access to resources a challenge. However, he said his agency has seen a decrease in “safety of life” concerns in recent days as the snow slowly melts and clears more.
But the concern in the mountains remains, especially after the roads. reopened to the public this weekend, prompting hundreds of angry comments on the California Department of Transportation’s Facebook ad. People who identified themselves as mountain residents called it a “terrible idea,” a “dangerous situation” and “silly,” questioning why visitors are allowed in when schools are still closed and many people are still stranded.
Aaron Thomas, center, and Mike Age deliver medication to Lexi Searles at her snow-covered home Friday in Lake Arrowhead.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
“I’m still buried,” wrote a woman who said she lives in Crestline’s Enchanted Valley. “I haven’t left my house in 21 days, like everyone else!!”
“People are still stuck in their houses, structures are still collapsing, no parking, we only have a grocery store,” another person wrote. “This is not the time to come and play.”
San Bernardino County officials say they are prioritizing safety, responding to calls, clearing more roads and continuing necessary services like prescription delivery. While prescription requests have slowed in recent days, Sherwin said about 30 requests still need to be filled, after about 60 deliveries made in the past week.
“As long as we have the need, we will continue to support the residents,” Sherwin said.
Volunteers Ward Schinke, left, and Joe Maharrey help stock a temporary pantry at a Valley of Enchantment fire station as San Bernardino Mountain area residents continue to deal with the aftermath of the recent snowfall.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
But many locals continue to complain about the county’s lack of preparedness and response to the storms, turning to neighbors, community groups and volunteers for help.
Twin Peaks resident Elsa Robles had been stuck at home with her two children and pets since last week’s storms.
She said they were holding out there, until she noticed her roof begin to crack and sag under the weight of the snow. Robles contacted the volunteer group Southern California Off-Road and Recovery and the group sent several people to shovel about 5 to 6 feet of snow off the roof of her.
“If they hadn’t come, I would be in a shelter right now with my children and my animals,” she said.
Robles said she had to crawl out of her house, walk in the snow and hitchhike to buy some groceries and dog food.
“It’s been like two weeks and we still need help,” he added. “We get help from the church and from other people, but not from the state or the county.”
She said her small, tight-knit community has looked out for each other — a neighbor helped her buy groceries by climbing over the same berm the firefighters navigated — but it’s been stressful.
Adam Perruzzi, a San Diego resident, has spent the past week volunteering with that group since he saw photos online of people trapped in their homes and wanted to find a way to help.
Mike Age greets Emma Cimino’s puppy after delivering prescription drugs in Lake Arrowhead.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
“It was amazing to see the response from the community,” he said. “Everywhere we’d gone, neighbors checked on each other. Everybody was there paddling. You could see different groups that got there by several different paths trying to do what they can.”
Perruzzi recalled a particularly grim incident in which an elderly man was trying to leave his home to visit his friend at the hospice and ended up trapped in his home.
“He tried to get out, but he got caught on the ladder going down,” Perruzzi said. “He got stuck at 3pm and they didn’t find him until 10pm the next day. He was frostbitten up to his thighs, but he was still alive.”
Searles, whose mother-in-law was given insulin, said he decided this weekend to pay about $1,500 to dig up his driveway, only to find a large crack in his windshield from snow. But she is focused on the positive.
“Now I can go to the pharmacy,” he said.
However, he is concerned about the current weather issues, including the forecast for more rain, especially for his friends and neighbors: a friend had a tree fall on his house, others have much older houses without strong roofs.
“A lot of my friends’ houses have been ruined or they just can’t get in,” Searles said.
Firefighter Mike Age greets San Bernardino mountain area resident Leroy Tolliver as he and other medics hand out prescriptions to snow-covered residents.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
The National Weather Service warned monday The ground in the San Bernardino County mountains is already “fairly saturated” from snowmelt and rainfall, meaning the next storm forecast to bring more rain on Tuesday could lead to “urban and small stream flooding.” ,
San Bernardino County firefighters were massed in the foothills Monday to ensure streams and drains were clear, Sherwin said.
“You start at the bottom and work your way up,” he said. “If it doesn’t clean the background, it goes back to the system.”
He said are sandbags available in several locations in the west county mountains, though he reminded residents not to be placed on snow, only on clear ground, otherwise they won’t work.
