GRASS VALLEY, Calif. — People without power – or a generator - in the Sierra are facing dangerous conditions as they head into the second full night without electricity or warmth.
“I just don’t know. It could be a week. It could be four days. It could be two days. A lot of trees fell,” said Steve Pohley, who lives at Sierra Pines Mobile Home Park in Grass Valley.
Like many of his neighbors, Pohley does not have a generator to keep his home warm.
“Well, it’s like a walk-in freezer,” he said, describing the state of his home. “It’s pretty cold in there.”
Neighbors at Sierra Pines are helping each other and say many who live there are elderly and living in what are now very cold trailer homes, since the power went out early Monday morning.
Wendy Olenick lives in the neighborhood. She lost power and has been checking on her elderly neighbors—including one 94-year-old woman who is alone and cold in her mobile home.
“They’re having a pretty tough time just because it’s so cold and they can’t get out and they have to stay bundled,” Olenick said. “You can see your breath when you’re inside! It might be warmer out here.”
As of late Tuesday afternoon, PG&E’s outage map for that Grass Valley mobile home park said power is expected to be restored by 10 p.m. Tuesday. A map of PG&E outages can be viewed below.
In the meantime, Olenick said neighbors are acting as a community—including shoveling what she calls “cement," because it’s so heavy.
She said snow like this was much more common in this area in her childhood—and back then, more people had wood-burning stoves to keep warm. Now, she pointed out, people are more reliant on the power grid.
Early Tuesday afternoon, the gas stations that were open in Grass Valley – including the Chevron at the East Main roundabout and Robinson Petroleum and Mini-Mart—were packed with people looking to fill their vehicles and extra tanks to power generators.
Brian Murphy came from his home north of Nevada City to the busy Robinson gas station in Grass Valley Tuesday afternoon to fill his propane tank, which powers his gas fireplace.
“And I got an old house, so it’s hard to keep it warm when it’s, you know, 30 degrees all night long and stuff, yeah. It’s supposed to get colder – and we’re supposed to get more snow,” he said. “I’ve lived up here since the 80s and this is one of the heaviest, biggest power outages we’ve had because of the heavy snow.”
As far as shelters, the Red Cross Gold Country Region has opened one at Nevada County’s Madelyn Helling Library in Nevada City, just off Highway 49 by the county buildings.
Shelter lead Robin Brinson said the shelter, which opened at 6 p.m. Monday, housed a couple of people Monday night, with many more coming during the day Tuesday to charge phones and get warm.
“We’ll still be open tonight, and as long as the need is there, we’ll be here,” she said Tuesday afternoon. “We still have pockets of areas that people are stranded, and who knows how long it will take to get all these areas with their electricity back on. So here’s a nice, warm place to come and be safe and be provided for.”
She said the library is open for people to use and charge devices too. It will be open during normal business hours, and the Red Cross shelter will be open to house people 24/7.
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