A Wet Lake Arrowhead Week

The first big winter storm of the 2007-2008 season brought plenty of snow--up to nearly a foot--but very few real problems.

"Not a lot of problems were caused by the storm. It was pretty uneventful," said Crest Forest Fire Chief Michael Sherman. "The rain was heavy; therefore, we had a lot of runoff. For all the rain we had, we didn't have nearly as many problems as we thought we would.

"A lot of people used sandbags and took proactive steps to prevent flooding. We had a tree through the roof of a house and a lot of calls about smoke in the houses from the flues in fireplaces. Most problems were caused by the wind," the chief added.

There were no major car accidents due to the storm in Crest Forest Fire's district. "The accidents I heard about were pretty minor," reported Chief Sherman. "We were pretty slow in our district. On Saturday night from 9:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. we had a ton of calls--mostly smoke in residences caused by the flues in their chimneys. We had some electrical calls and we couldn't find anything except maybe a tree on the line.

"Everything was handled appropriately," continued Chief Sherman. "I was expecting to have more problems with as much rain and snow as we had. On Saturday morning, my wife and I looked at the Weather Channel and it said there was a wind advisory in effect in the mountains and a flood watch in place for the mountains, too. It said we would have mudslides, floods, heavy wind, rain and snow. It should have said, 'There will be no tsunamis or tornadoes, but everything else is possible.'

"Things have been pretty slow and we like it that way. We mostly chased chimney burnouts and smoke. There was one structure fire, but it was confined to one room."

Chief Bill Smith of the Running Springs Fire Department concurred. "We had a few calls for flooding," he said. "And on Monday we had a call about a tree and some power lines down across a street.

"But there was nothing major compared to what we were prepared for," Chief Smith added. People were prepared, he said. They had picked up hundreds of sandbags and got them in place before the storm hit.

"This storm didn't hit us as badly as we had anticipated," Chief Smith said with a sense of relief.

"Basically, the storm had no effects other than filling the lake," said Ranger Larry Hagernan of Lake Gregory Regional Park. "It's going into the overflow now. I wouldn't expect it to affect anything to do with the dredging of the lake. Everything is fine down here. Right now there is snow on the banks, so we're not seeing a lot of fishing."

The 7.17 inches of rain received in Lake Arrowhead raised the level of the lake abut 20 inches.

Rutledge noted three or four boats sank in the storm as the batteries in their bilge pumps failed. "Anyone who still has a boat on the lake would be well served to remove it."

Due the high winds, he added, a number of docks temporarily staked to the shoreline came loose. "It would be a good idea for dock owners to contact their dock contractors so they don't face a lot of repairs."

Rutledge added it's important to remove the temporary anchoring stakes. "As we get more rain, these will become harder and harder to retrieve. If they are not removed, they will become safety hazards to swimmers in the coming 2008 season."

Ken Nelsen, interim general manager of Lake Arrowhead Community Services District, was thrilled with the amount of moisture going into the lake. He pointed out the lake is continuing to rise due to the snow melt. "The creeks are running pretty heavy right now, and that's a good thing," Nelsen noted.

He said his treatment plant people were called out to monitor the wastewater treatment plants as there were several starts and stops due to power failures.

"They want to make sure the equipment is running properly, which it was," Nelsen added.