POLLOCK PINES, Calif. — While officials have made some progress clearing roads and restoring power, tens of thousands in the Sierra remain in the dark. Resources are being stretched thin as locals fight to survive in the bitter cold.
Trying to stay optimistic, Debi Florence and husband are snowed in.
“As it stands right now, we really don’t have any way out,” said Debi Florence in Pollock Pines.
“It could be worse. It could be a lot worse. I mean we got a roof over our head. We got food,” she added.
Florence and her husband have a generator. It’s expensive, but she needs a CPAP machine so they only run the generator at night.
For Gordon Medley, it's been a hectic several days. He's helped bring food, fuel and other necessities to seniors at the Ponderosa and Heavenly Pine mobile home parks.
“I’m worried somebody is going to freeze to death,” he said.
He and many others have growing concerns about how long this outage may drag on. PG&E alerted some Sierra customers that crews aren’t expected on site for another 10 days. It remains unclear how long it'll take for power to be restored.
“We need that power now, not 10 days from now, not 20 days from now. We need it now,” Medley said.
Area gas stations have even run out of fuel. One station told ABC10 that trucks were delayed because of the massive traffic jam brought on by holiday travelers vying to get to Lake Tahoe.
Locals are urging visitors to stay away for now.
“Please fuel up where they have lots of fuel. Our little towns need this fuel just to survive," Medley said. "Please, stay away if you can.”
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