Getting Answers: Several Camptonville roads now drivable on 20th day buried by snow
CAMPTONVILLE -- Multiple Yuba County mountain roads left buried by snow for nearly 20 days became drivable Tuesday afternoon, one day after CBS13 shined a spotlight on the community of neighbors stranded in their homes.
County officials told CBS13 Tuesday that crews would have eventually gotten to the winding, one-way roads to clear them of obstruction, but the report sped up the process.
Monday morning, CBS13 received calls from multiple neighbors stating that 20 to 40 people were running out of food and medication and could wait for help no longer.
"All of us are extremely thankful," said Michael DeMaranville Tuesday, who first reported the problem to CBS13.
The sigh of relief Tuesday to find the roads finally passable was collective among neighbors now freed from their homes — or as DeMaranville described, prisons.
"Camptonville is a challenge right now. It's very unusual for us to get snow last year and this year," said Russ Brown, a spokesperson for Yuba County.
The roads where neighbors were stuck include Baker Road, Garden Valley Road and a few other surrounding, county-maintained roads.
But as Brown explained, "county-maintained" does not equal "county-plowed." In fact, signs leading up to the roads read "snow not removed beyond here."
The reason? The unpaved terrain cannot handle high-end snow plowing equipment, which Brown says the county does not even have as it does not typically snow this much.
"We can not go in and easily plow these roads. If we do, the machinery will tear apart the roads," said Brown. "We don't want to go in and damage a road for the sake of helping somebody in the moment when it's going to damage them in the long term after that and make the road inaccessible if it washes out."
So, if the county is not responsible for removing snow, why did they? And what is it required to do on roads it owns?
Brown said the county has an obligation to keep its roads safe and passable, which is why Tuesday, road crews used equipment to clear as much snow as possible and make the snow-buried roads passable by car.
It is an unprecedented storm causing unprecedented issues for public works crews.
"It has been 24/7 for a couple weeks now. These guys are exhausted and they are still out there doing the work," said Brown.
Rancher Dana Hawley is one of the few neighbors who was not snowed in but snowed out.
Tuesday's news of drivable roads was an instant relief, but his farm animals paid the price during his time away from home.
"The fact that I lost five goats that my children have been bottle feeding because I couldn't get in there to take care of them, after 20 days, is not acceptable to me," said Hawley.
The county says it understands the frustration, but with limited resources, they cannot be everywhere at once; and the main roads and highways that impact more people have to be their first focus, not backroads.
"It's a tough thing. We don't want them to feel like they are different but we have to prioritize as to who will use the road the most. Resources are scarce," said Brown.
Hawley and other neighbors say they get it, but help should have come sooner.
"I would say myself and my neighbors, we feel like we were kind of abandoned," said Hawley.
Stuck in the snow no more, neighbors are grateful to the crews that freed them and asking now for this not to happen again.
The county said this unusual storm offered a lesson in response.
"We are all learning from this. Yuba County is not used to this low-level storm where the snow comes in this low," said Brown.