NBC 7’s Shandel Menezes spoke with a Lake Arrowhead resident about surviving days of being trapped in their home by the snow.
Monday marks day 13 for San Bernardino Mountain locals and visitors who are trapped. They said they keep count because it’s hard not to.
Lake Arrowhead local Michelle Calkins said she feels like she’s living in a horror movie. She's working with other locals to free their neighbors who have been snowed in.
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Try as they might to keep things under control, problems snowballed quickly.
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“Roofs collapsing, decks collapsing, gas leaks everywhere, houses exploding,” Calkins said.
Families remain stuck in their homes. Some are running out of food, medicine — and hope.
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“It's just been catastrophic; apocalyptic," Calkins said. "It feels like we're living in some kind of World War Z movie.”
The Taylor family was trapped for 11 days.
“We were expecting to go do something with our friends and maybe even ski and go to the pizza place. But, instead we got snowed in.”
Their mom, Soriany, said as the days went on, they even tried to hitch hike down the mountain. Nothing worked until highway patrol called them Sunday morning and asked them to be ready ASAP.
“Within 30 minutes, we got ourselves together with our big dog and then hiked out to meet the officer who's our hero," Soriany said.
They made it home, but said their car they left buried in the snow and their hearts are still with those who couldn’t get out, like Michelle.
“The fire department is overworked," Calkins said. "They are doing amazing. They're doing what they can with the resources that they have. But we need more help. These houses are still exploding, and people are inside.”
San Bernardino County Response reports it’s cleared 85% of roads and is still working around the clock.
