Residents in Colorado's Coal Creek Canyon still buried in snow days after storm

Two days after a storm dumped snow all over Colorado, people in Coal Creek Canyon are still digging out if they can.

Saturday, Slater Saile and his neighbor spent their day digging themselves out from Thursday's storm.

"Two days. Don't sell my back short," said Saile.

He lives in Coal Creek Canyon in rural Jefferson County. He says living out there, people are prepared to be trapped in their homes, but this much snow is unusual.

"A storm, this size doesn't happen very often. I think it's been at least 15 years since we've had this much snow," said Saile.

He says houses are still buried in feet of snow. Making things worse, not all the roads are plowed. And when the roads that are plowed get done, the plows create berms in front of driveways.

Slater thinks his neighbors could be stuck for the long haul.

"They're not getting out without help," said Saile.

He worries that someone could have an emergency and won't be able to get the help they need.

"I don't think emergency personnel could get anywhere near these houses. If they got up to the road, they're not getting into anybody's property. Like an ambulance or a fire truck… nobody's going to get close," said Saile.

He thinks someone with some serious snow removal equipment needs to come dig people out.

"I don't know who's going to help them. I don't know if the county can come by with some kind of machinery and get people out," said Saile.

Jefferson County says there are no plow trucks in the Coal Creek Canyon area because the snow is too heavy. Instead, the county is using road graders. The county says that staff are working overtime to clear roads but they're only able to handle half of the 82 routes across the county. County officials are hopeful that crews can have the roads clear by the end of Saturday.

If that doesn't happen, neighbors may need to wait until all the snow melts, which Saile says isn't going to be a fast process.

"It's going to take them some time," he said.

The official National Weather Service snow total from this week's storm in Coal Creek Canyon was three and a half feet.