PIONEER, Calif. — With a chainsaw in hand, John Valvo was cutting up limbs from a pair of large pine trees that fell in his front yard off Highway 88 in Pioneer.
"We just got a whole bunch of snow. These two trees went down and blocked my driveway," says Valvo, who has lived in the Pioneer area for more than sixty years.
But, that's not all he's dealing with. Like many here in the town of roughly 1,400, his power is out thanks in part to down power lines.
Up and down Pioneer Creek Road, there are sounds of shoveling. Michael Bates and his son Luke were busy shoveling their driveway full of snow.
"It's a lot of fun, but it's a little more than we can handle," said Michael Bates.
That's because there's no power there too.
"You can't take a shower. You can't flush the toilet," said Luke Bates.
Bate's solution is one some might consider a "pioneering" one.
"We take water out of the creek to flush the toilet, you know. That's how we do it," he said.
While utility crews lined Highway 88 to restore power, a generator powered the Pioneer Hardware store.
"For necessities like wood pellets or ice melt or snow shovels whatever we have left. We've been hit pretty hard the last three days. You can imagine," said Taylor Parsons, whose family has owned Pioneer Hardware along Highway 88 for nearly four decades.
In nearby Pine Grove, it's not just the power that's out, but the roof of a Chevron gas station.
Just outside Orlando's Pine Grove Market, the weight of the snow was too much for one section of the gas station roof. One car parked underneath suffered some damage, but most importantly, no one was hurt.
Back in Pioneer, the digging out continues. Dan, who just provided his first name, sums it up this way.
"This is way -- the worst. I've never seen so much snow here," Dan said.
His advice? "Don't come up here."
Late Wednesday afternoon, more than 4,000 were still without power in Amador County. The majority without power remained in Pioneer.
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