Pummeled by snowstorms, California mountain towns urge tourists to ‘read the room’

Thousands of people lost power in the Sierra foothills this week, and many were left snowbound as storms blanketed some areas. over 10 feet new snow

But conditions did little to stem the flow. “snow players” – Weekend visitors from the Bay Area or Central Valley traveling to the mountains for skiing, sledding and sightseeing. The influx has strained mountain towns around Bear Valley Mountain Resort, where local officials say vehicles are clogging up downed power lines and clogging up already dangerous roads.

On Friday, the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office asked visitors to avoid the upper Highway 4 corridor until conditions improve. The office warned that this area was still covered with snow, ice and debris from fallen trees.

Additionally, vehicles were haphazardly parked along the roadway as drivers sled or tubed out into the hills, according to the sheriff’s office, with more than 8,000 Pacific Gas and Electric Co. It was blocking “critical access” for utility crews working to restore power to customers. Limited parking forced crews to load and unload their equipment from the road medians this week.

“Despite repeated warnings, we continue to see a steady flow of recreational visitors traveling to the area,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. he said. “We understand the desire to enjoy the snow, but this creates serious safety issues.”

Roads to the resort “looked like summer” after Bear Valley reopened Saturday after a three-day closure, according to Arnold resident Vern Baird. On his way to buy food for his neighbors, he ran into traffic; Many of her neighbors were still covered in snow and without electricity or heat Saturday afternoon.

“Dozens and tons of people are driving their electric cars or Teslas even though they don’t have a way to charge them,” Baird said. “I don’t know how to say this nicely; city people and mountain people are completely different.”

The narrow roads were filled with cars around noon Saturday as Tina Skillett headed to work at a warehouse in Arnold. He said seeing children playing in the snow just off the icy road made him nervous: “Not only is it distracting, but what happens if you slip on a child?”

Skillett wishes Bear Valley could remain closed for another day, giving more time for the ice to thaw and power crews to restore power. But he understands why the resort opened at that time and notes that local tourism suffered after little snowfall earlier in the season.

“Our businesses are suffering,” Skillett said. “We’re approaching the end of the season, so it’s a critical time for them. And it’s snowing nicely, that’s when they make their money. But they shouldn’t force it.”

This week’s snowfall came after a relatively dry January and February. And that fresh, unique layer of powdery snow Conditions conducive to avalanches were createdincluding disaster killed nine alpine skiers Tuesday in Tahoe. Other resorts in the region last line related to skiing deaths.

According to General Manager Brad Cumberland, approximately 2,500 people visited Bear Valley on Saturday; that number was about 500 fewer than a normal day. The facility decided to reopen after the snowfall slowed down and the teams cleared some of the snow and ensured that the cable cars were operational, the official said, adding that a ski patrol team trained in avalanche combat works “24 hours a day”.

“From what I understand, Arnold is in pretty bad shape after the storm,” Cumberland said. “We have to walk a really fine line because most of our employee base comes from this area and we understand that all of these people have their own personal yards to clean and their own problems to solve.”

In Arnold, the effort to clear roads despite an onslaught of visitors meant long hours for the few farming and tree removal jobs in the small town. Jessica Snider’s husband worked “40 hours” Friday and Saturday, clearing snow from country roads that the county said he neglected to plow in the early days of the storm. The county’s public works department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.

On Saturday, retired nurse Kathleen Morris Bince was left snowed in at her Arnold home for five days, alone and without power. Despite his concerns about bears, he kept his cold meal outside on his porch this week. At least six trees fell around his home; one sends power lines “jumping everywhere,” while the other lands in the driveway, forcing her to “go over and through” every time she takes her dogs for a walk.

“I only have a few minutes a day when I can go online. I’m hanging on, I’ve got wood for the fire and food in my belly,” Morris Bince wrote in a message to the Chronicle. “To say the least, it was an adventure that was easy to talk about but difficult to experience.”

Stephanie Peffer, who runs a snow and tree removal service with her husband, said they “can’t count” the number of people who have called to report trees falling on or inside their homes and, in some cases, getting trapped inside them. Peffer said snow and debris sometimes damaged her husband’s equipment.

“It’s come into homes where people are saying, ‘I don’t have food here, I don’t have heat, it’s 40 degrees inside my house,’ and he can’t get them out,” he said. “That kind of pressure is heavy on your average snow and tree man.”

Peffer understands visitors’ excitement about snow and its importance to the local economy. But the stop-and-go traffic in Arnold on Saturday was incompatible with the “state of emergency” he had been experiencing all week.

“It’s frustrating when people don’t know how to read the room,” he said. “It’s not like this is the time to play. We’re trying to get people warm and safe, clean up our little town, and when that’s done they can come play.”

This article was first published at: California mountain towns hit by snowstorms urge tourists to ‘read the room’.