Heavy snow has wrought calamity across the state; burying roads and houses, disrupting power and snapping branches off trees
lake Heauser’s chainsaw slowly rumbled quiet. Sounds of tall trees splintering and crashing under the weight of the freshly fallen snow cut through the stillness, as the latest round of winter weather bore down on the town, tucked into the foothills in northern. He had cleared a path through the wooded debris for now but with more storms in the forecast it might not last.
Even as locals grapple with the effects of this very wet winter, the threats from wildfires linger just months away. The extremes have tested key infrastructure across the seasons, adding hazards for even the most resilient and prepared residents. They are also inextricably linked. Yosemite national park has announced it will remain closed through 17 March – a “best-case scenario” as a result of “significant snowfall” while the Central SierraLab, housed against the Sierra near Donner Pass, reported more than 50 ft of snowfall already this season.
Energy provider Pacific Gas & Electric has scrambled to repair downed poles and lines left scattered by the storms, but the lack of ability to get equipment into the rugged and frost-laden terrain has proven difficult and inhibited progress. Residents in remote areas of Nevada county stick signs in the snow pleading for help to plow their driveways.On a frigid Friday evening, the team spent more than 12 hours visiting residents, careening over narrow berms and chewed-through terrain. High in the hills, the smell of crisp pine is cut by wood smoke and gasoline, the remnants of last-resort heating in darkened neighborhoods.
“We had snowmageddon and it felt like it was a once-in-a-century storm,” he said, referring to a previous weather event the community named after it blew through last year. “And it wasn’t as bad as this one. So we don’t have a word for this,” he added, laughing with a grimace. “We already used the best word we had.”
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