A Quokka Dreeds its Weird

It's snowing! In honor of that, here's how things are going two months post-snowpocalypse.

Car

Pro: AAA was very pleasant to deal with, reimbursed me for the car that was destroyed, and will pay for the damages to the other car.

Con: The destroyed car is still parked on the street in front of my house. The tow company AAA wants me to use keeps not showing up. Someone put a note on the windshield asking to buy it for parts. I can't sell it or get rid of it, as it's now owned by AAA.

Other car still not repaired due to delays in getting AAA's permission to do the repair transferred from LA to Crestline.

House

Insurance just denied my claim for the rain gutters getting ripped off, as they say it's within my deductible. WE'LL SEE. I will now go ahead and try to hire someone to fix that. In Crestline. lolsob.

Have not yet submitted a claim for the tree that fell on my shed. They're going to love how long it's been between when the damage occurred and when I submitted a claim.

FEMA

Pro: We are now eligible for individual grants!

Pro: FEMA has set up a center in Crestline. Everyone working there is extremely nice.

Con: This is the process for getting a FEMA grant.

1. You must get a letter from your insurance company denying your claim. Your contract stating that certain things aren't covered doesn't count. So to have a chance of getting my plumbing covered, I either need to make a claim with my insurance even though they already refused to let me do so as it's not covered at all and then have them deny it, or get them to write me a letter saying it's so not covered that they won't even let me make a claim.

2. You must apply for a loan with FEMA. Yes, even if you already paid for repairs as I did. Yes, even if you don't want a loan as it has interest and so will actually cost you money to get.

3. FEMA must deny the loan.

4. IF FEMA denies the loan, THEN you can apply for a grant with FEMA. Which they may or may not approve.

It took me three hours at the FEMA center to figure this all out. Also, in order to do any of this, FEMA must send a text to your cell phone which you have ten minutes to respond to. They set up their center in a cell service dead zone so the parking lot was full of people running around waving their cell phones in the air desperately trying to receive a text.

Started my car to leave. Engine made a very unsettling sound. Car is now in the shop to be checked. If I don't get it back either fixed or okayed to make the drive within two hours max, I will have to cancel the plumber who was going to meet me today to turn my water back on, and when I get to go back home will depend on his schedule.

Here's a video my friend Tim made of him helping to dig out my car. This was shot over four hours of elapsed time. Before he even started, me and some neighbors had already been digging at that site for days. The video is on YouTube so you should all be able to see it.

Subaru excavation

The LA Times has an article which I have copied in entirety below the cut. Its cheerful tone belies its appalling content. It sounds heartwarming because it's about people helping each other, but it's really about how we got NO help from anyone but private individuals, people died as a result, and the county is actively involved in a cover-up and STILL refusing to help.

During the nearly two weeks he was stranded in his home, Mark Steven Young called about 20 people or agencies to try to get his street plowed and a 6-foot mound of snow cleared from his door.

( Read more... )

The cats and I are now warm and cozy in LA. The chickens are warm and cozy in a palatial coop in Costa Mesa - I'll collect them when the temporary coop I ordered arrives in LA.

I was so drenched and filthy by the time I got off the mountain that I took off my shoes and socks and stood barefoot on a gas station parking lot because that was cleaner.

How I made it out is a thrilling tale involving tweakers at midnight. I will tell it tomorrow.

I was on ABC yesterday.

A tree fell on our power lines several days ago and has been on them ever since, leaning precariously. Still no official help on our street.

My rain gutters were ripped off the house from the weight of ice.

Earlier, I dropped my mouthguard (I grind my teeth at night) in the bathtub full of filthy water I use to flush the toilet and had no clean water to wash it with, so I dropped it in a cup of gin for 15 minutes. So that was lovely.

I got multiple offers to foster the chickens off the mountain until the coop in LA arrives and is put together, so I will take them and the cats and drive like a bat out of hell (or rather very carefully) the instant I get my car dug out. Assuming it starts.

I have written a post which I have copied below. Feel free to link if you don't have Facebook. If you do have Facebook, please share it.

Facebook Post

Please share this widely! I’m a resident of Crestline, CA and a former disaster relief worker for the American Red Cross. This is the worst disaster response I’ve ever encountered. One week after an unprecedented snowstorm, we’re in dire straits and getting very little assistance.

Crestline and other areas affected by the San Bernardino snow disaster need help. We need a FEDERAL disaster declaration, door-to-door welfare checks for people trapped in their homes, door-to-door help shoveling paths out of the snow, removal of 10’ and higher ice berms trapping our cars, reimbursement for disaster-related expenses, and permission to return to our homes if we need to leave the mountain to get medical aid or supplies. Please contact President Biden, CA Governor Newsom, and San Bernardino elected officials to urge this help. You can just copy the requests in this paragraph, but read on if you want more details about what’s going on - and my own story.

We are used to snow here, and most residents are well-prepared for a typical snowstorm. Crestline normally gets six inches to two feet of snow. We got over nine feet of snow. Individual residents are not prepared for that, and we are overwhelmed.

Some people are literally trapped inside their homes by snow blocking their doors. Others can leave their homes but not their yards because the snow is over their heads. Many streets are not plowed, so no vehicles can drive. When streets are plowed, the snow is pushed to the sides and forms 10’ – 20’ walls of solid ice which block cars and driveways. The official statement of San Bernardino is that there will be no help breaking down the ice walls or shoveling paths to homes – they are only willing to plow the streets. These are not normal ice berms and individuals cannot break them down! We need help with this.

Many people are running out of food, as the only grocery in Crestline collapsed due to snow and the one in the next closest town partially collapsed. The only food distribution is at city centers, and it’s not in the same places every day. Many people cannot get past the ice walls or walk miles through snow up to their waist or over their head to get to the food. Because the food distribution points rotate rather than being in the same place consistently, people are struggling for hours through the snow only to find there is no food there that day. The sites are announced over the internet the day before, but many people have their internet cut off due to the storm and have no way of knowing where the food will be. We need consistent, daily food distribution sites. We also need door to door food distribution as many people can’t walk to the sites. Remember, our cars are trapped and we can’t drive!

Residents are allowed to drive down the mountain (if they’ve dug their cars out), but if we leave, we will not be allowed back up. No one is saying when we will be allowed back, but officials have hinted it will be at least a week and maybe a month or more. So anyone who drives down to get medical help or food is trapped away from their home with no idea of when they can return. Because of this, everyone is afraid to leave, so we have no way of replenishing our own supplies and no way of lightening the load in general by going to stay with friends. Residents need to be allowed back up the mountain!

Homes and businesses are collapsing from the weight of snow on the roof. We have ten times the amount of snow we normally get in some places, and we need help with it.

As gas vents are blocked by snow and gas pipes are breaking from the weight, a number of houses have exploded or burned down. I have yet to see any assistance shoveling out gas vents. Again, normally we could do this ourselves, but not when there’s nine feet of snow and ice!

Supposedly help is here. None of us have seen it. We’ve seen National Guard helicopters circling, but no boots on the ground. If ever there was a time for a large National Guard deployment, it’s now. The American Red Cross has opened a shelter, but it’s in Redland – off the mountain and 45 minutes away from anyone who actually needs help. We need the Red Cross on the mountain, where they’re actually needed.

We would love to help each other and are doing our best, but we literally can’t get to each other. We are overwhelmed and need help. I am especially worried about disabled, sick, and elderly people who live alone. What happens to them if they don’t have close neighbors who can check on them? We need door-to-door welfare checks.

Here's my own story. At the beginning of the storm, one of my water pipes burst. The water company contacted me and told me they were cutting off my water. I filled my bathtub and all containers. (I also keep emergency water.) They plowed my street just up to my water meter, turned off my water, and backed out rather than continuing to plow the street. That was a week ago and to date they have been the only official response of any kind I have seen on my street.

Soon after, my internet cable broke in the storm. My 4G and telephone service also went out. I live alone and at that point I had no way whatsoever to communicate with anyone. I am five feet tall and my house was surrounded by snow over my head. I dug my way out of the house in the hope of making phone calls asking for help from a neighbor’s house. Then I discovered that the ways out of my property were also blocked. My driveway was under nine feet of soft snow, and my staircase, which is wooden and very steep, was under five feet of soft snow. Both ended in ice walls about ten feet high. Either way out was extremely dangerous.

I was so desperate that I climbed and slid down the staircase, then climbed the ice wall. I found a neighbor with internet and phone service, and began making calls for help. I explained to everyone that I spoke to that I had no communication whatsoever at my house and no running water, and that leaving my house was extremely dangerous. I requested help shoveling the staircase and for my internet and/or phone to be fixed so I could at least call for help. (I couldn’t move in with the neighbors or go to a shelter as I have pets and farm animals I need to care for.)

The response I got was disheartening. My internet company, Spectrum, offered me a service appointment ten days in the future. The San Bernardino official helpline took my number, but I never heard back from them. The plumbers I contacted about repairing my pipe so I can get my water turned back on were sympathetic, but they all lived in San Bernardino and worked in Crestline, and were not allowed up the mountain. One of them said that he has snow cats and a full crew and asked to come up to help shovel people out, but was refused permission to go up the mountain.

My neighbors shoveled a path up my stairs so I could get in and out without risking my neck. I still have no running water and no idea when that can be fixed. My car in under ten feet of snow and blocked by a fifteen foot wall of solid ice, so I can’t leave. I still have no reliable internet or phone service at my house. I am posting this from a neighbor’s house.

Please repost this to spread the word of the desperate situation and shocking mismanagement of this disaster. Please contact President Biden to ask him to declare a FEDERAL disaster. Please contact Governor Gavin Newsom of CA and elected officials in San Bernardino to ask them to send actual help, not just empty promises and false claims.

Thank you.

Rachel Manija Brown, writing from Crestline, CA on March 5, 2023.

Feel free to copy or reprint this anywhere with attribution.

My phone's 4G just came on, and I've created a mobile hotspot for my laptop. Pray it stays on. This has cheered me enormously, and is also a big safety improvement.

There are only two ways to leave my property and one is impossible (8' of snow at least covering g the driveway, ending in a 10' wall of solid ice) and the other is really dangerous (wooden stairway completely covered in up to 5' of very soft snow so you can't see where the steps are.) I've been climbing/struggling up and down the latter to get to my neighbor's place so I can use the phone/internet because otherwise I can't contact anyone to get help with anything like internet, water, shoveling, etc, but obviously it would be much better if I could just stay home and email/text for help.

(I tried making homemade snowshoes. Several times. None of them worked. All I can say is you should try it yourself in deep snow and see if you can do better.)

I haven't had a shower since the 27th and every time I go out, I get drenched to the skin and filthy. And my clothes are wet and dirty and I can't wash them.

The water company plowed my street SOLELY TO TURN OFF MY WATER. They plowed to my meter, turned off my water, and backed out rather than even finish plowing the street past my house!

That is typical of the disaster response effort. It's a disaster in and of itself. The gas company has sent at least four conflicting alerts saying that we should dig out our gas meters or our houses will explode, and that this is a myth and we don't need to.

The only supermarket in Crestline had its roof collapse, and the other nearest supermarket (in Blue Jay) just got red-tagged so no one can go in.

People are completely stuck in their houses with no food or medicine, roofs are collapsing across town, and everyone's left on their own to shovel themselves out. No one can help anyone else except to a very small degree because no one can get anywhere. We need the National Guard. Apparently one very small group got called out but no one's seen them.

I've been shoveling a ton and I'm sore and I want a goddamn hot shower.

I should have some help shoveling on Sunday and possibly a shower, if my friends across town can get their own street plowed.

I'm fine, cats are fine, chickens are fine. BUT we had 91 inches of snow. That's a little under 8 feet, or 2.31 meters. Crestline hasn't gotten this much snow in 50 years.

I am under 5-8 feet of snow. There is a wall of ice surrounding my place. A neighbor had to hack steps in it so I could climb down to the street to get to his place because...

...my phone and internet are both down. ONLY MINE. My cable snapped in the storm. Once I'm in the house, I can't communicate at all. I'm posting from the neighbor's place.

To get out of the house, I have to go through snow up to my waist. I have to climb along the staircase to get down to the street as the snow around my lot is higher than my head.

My car is completely buried in snow. There is a 12-foot berm of solid ice blocking it.

I still have no running water.

The chicken run door now won't close properly because it swelled or something, so it's tied shut.

The local supermarket and Ace Hardware both had their roofs collapse.

Please write me fanfic or amusing reviews or something, I will appreciate it when I get back online.

My SUV (Subaru Forester) is completely buried in snow. It looks like a giant snow haystack.

The chicken coop is walled in with snow except for the deep hole I dug so I can squeeze in the door.

I lost one of my Yaktrax in the snow.

I haven't even started shoveling the deck yet.

I need a restorative nip of brandy.

Over 3' on deck and chicken coop roof.

Drifts taller than me so 5' plus blocking both coop and shed with their food.

I just had to shovel a trench to get out of the house.

This is TOO MUCH SNOW.

Chickens are fine. All six of them laid eggs today!