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Amid a storm that has left residents in the mountains trapped for days after 17 feet of snow was dumped there, California Governor Gavin Newsom has left the state without explanation.
The Democrat, considered a potential successor to President Joe Biden by progressives, was reported to be out of California on ‘personal travel’ Friday, according to Fox News. He is scheduled to return Sunday.
Newsom’s press office did not disclose where exactly Newsom had traveled to, only to say that before he left the state, he visited Diablo Canyon, its last nuclear power plant, on Wednesday.
However, the San Luis Obispo Times noted, Newsom’s press shop only told the media about the visit after he’d left.
‘Yesterday, Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the Diablo Canyon Power Plant to tour its facilities and highlight how this source of carbon-free electricity will support energy reliability during California’s clean energy transition,’ read a statement from the governor’s office.
Amid a storm that has left residents in the mountains trapped for days after 17 feet of snow was dumped there , California Governor Gavin Newsom has left the state without explanation
The Times noted that reporters in the area have been covering the site and events taking place there ‘for decades.’
Newsom hasn’t kept a public schedule running for several weeks, which included his recent visit to Washington to meet with Biden and California Senator Alex Padilla.
‘It was more a function of figuring out what we could share depending on the folks he was meeting with,’ Newsom’s deputy press secretary, Daniel Villaseñor, said in an attempt to explain the lack of a public schedule.
‘A lot of those meetings were being nailed down at the time. We were figuring out logistically what we could share ahead of time.’
The governor’s Twitter account tweeted twice Friday, once criticizing Republicans for a bill in South Carolina that would allegedly allow executions for women who have abortions. He also shared an anti-gun segment from comedian Jon Stewart’s Apple TV+ show.
Now, he is missing in action after declaring a state of emergency in 13 counties across the state, including Los Angeles, on Wednesday due to the storms.
A late-February blast of arctic air produced a rare blizzard east of Los Angeles in the San Bernardino Mountains, where thousands of people live at high elevations in forest communities or visit for year-round recreation.
Extraordinary snowfall buried homes and businesses, overwhelming the capability of snowplowing equipment geared toward ordinary storms.
A person cycles through snow in Los Angeles County during another winter storm in Southern California on Wednesday. States of emergency have been declared in 13 counties by Newsom, including Los Angeles
Sheriff Shannon Dicus is ‘encouraging people to stay out of the local mountains’ for any recreational activity, as deputies are still tirelessly working to extract residents from the dangerous conditions. Residents line up to receive food (pictured)
Newsom allegedly hasn’t kept a public schedule running for several weeks, which included his recent visit to Washington to meet with Biden and California Senator Alex Padilla
By last weekend, all highways leading up into the mountains were closed and have opened intermittently since then to residents and convoys of trucks loaded with food or other supplies.
Sheriff Shannon Dicus is ‘encouraging people to stay out of the local mountains’ for any recreational activity, as deputies are still tirelessly working to extract residents from the dangerous conditions.
‘I urge the public to please stay out of those areas for any type of recreation at all, it’s just not safe,’ he said at a press conference on Friday. ‘Folks, we’re here for you, we’re going to dig you out, and we are coming.’
The Sheriff’s Department has been providing residents with ready-made meals for those that are unable to access a grocery store.
Dicus described the rescue operations like a heart, saying the ‘state highways are like arteries, and then go you down the county roads and they’re like veins, and individual services and homes are like capillaries.’
A man digs himself out of a heavy snow area in San Bernardino in southern California
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The Big Bear Mountain Resort received 134 inches, or more than 11 feet, of snow. Throughout the whole season, the area has received around 17 feet of snow (pictured: A home in Twin Bridges)
‘Those services in the homes that people need to access are blocked by walls of snow. So even though we’re making progress, we still have to knock down those walls, get people’s driveways cleared, and businesses cleared, and a number of things,’ Dicus said.
Several roads leading to Big Bear have been shut down, as well as the San Bernardino National Forest until March 16, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The Big Bear Mountain Resort received 134 inches, or more than 11 feet, of snow. Throughout the whole season, the area has received around 17 feet of snow.
Derek Hayes, who is stranded in the California mountains, said he was ‘first very frustrated, but now it’s where we’re somewhat scared.’
‘There’s nowhere to put the snow, no way to walk around it – it’s up to my neck in a lot of places,’ he told CNN. ‘You take a step and you sink all the way down.’
‘It’s just crazy,’ another resident, Charlene Bermudez, told the outlet. ‘There’s just no way to get out anywhere.’
One of Bermudez’s neighbors, who has cancer, has been trying to get out to attend a doctor’s appointment, she told CNN.
The National Weather Service issued its first-ever blizzard warning in San Bernardino. Governor Gavin Newsom has declared an emergency.
The Big Bear Mountain Resort received 134 inches, or more than 11 feet, of snow. San Bernardino Fire is working around the clock to help people who are stuck
The Sheriff’s Department has been providing residents with ready-made meals for those that are unable to access a grocery store
Longtime Crestline resident Dominga Mijangos receives donated food
Several roads leading to Big Bear have been shut down, as well as the San Bernardino National Forest until March 16, according to the Sheriff’s Office as they are working to help those stuck in the moutains
Hannah Whiteoak, who has already had to dig her car out at least four times, said the mountain community has entered ‘survival mode’ and ‘just keeps pushing through.’
It is unclear how many people are stuck, but 13 counties are under emergencies.
Yesterday, tornadoes tore through Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas and left a trail of destruction in their wake – with more twisters forecast through Friday.
The devastation is laid bare in dramatic videos that show overturned trucks, fiery explosions and debris scattered across neighborhoods and highways. The extreme weather will continue Friday with ‘baseball-sized hail’ possible in some areas.
Workers in Twin Bridges survey the snow on Friday. The Sierra snowpack survey conducted on Friday revealed a recorded snow depth of 116.5 inches
State Route 38 is seen covered in snow with high snowbanks along the treelined road
A snow-covered mountain can be seen in San Bernardino on Thursday
One clip filmed in Texas shows power lines bursting into flames just yards from people’s homes as a tornado passed over. National Weather Service teams planned to head out Friday to survey areas for likely tornado damage in the storm’s path, which stretched from southeast Oklahoma into the Lone Star State and neighboring Arkansas and Louisiana.
The terrifying weather across the region comes as swathes of California were buried under a rare dose of heavy snow this week.
Eight million people in the South are under a moderate to severe storm threat as Texas and Louisiana are devastated by gigantic tornadoes.
