SoCal mountain residents face roadblocks after heavy snow hits area

ANGELUS OAKS, Calif. (KABC) -- For most of Friday, only residents were allowed up Highway 38 and only as far as Angelus Oaks after a frigid winter storm brought quite a bit of snow to the Southland.

One man, Jeff, was trying to get home to Sugarloaf, which is up near Big Bear, but hit a roadblock.

"I've been waiting for probably an hour and a half, an hour and 40 minutes, and the rumor is it's going to open soon, but they don't know what the restrictions will be," he said.

Janet and Finnigan Stemple are not mountain residents so their day trip to Forest Falls had to wait, along with a long line of other people.

The reason for the roadblock, Caltrans said, was a dumping of snow near Jenks Lake.

"It just buried the road so we ended up with probably a good average of 6 to 8 feet of snow across the road," said Don Elms, with Caltrans.

Caltrans tried to open Highway 18 near Snow Valley, which was damaged from the storm over the weekend.

"We did talk to the engineer this morning and he says we're still on track. We're talking with Snow Valley and information is getting over to the other resorts in the area. So we're hoping we'll get it reopened again in a couple of weeks," Terri Kasinga said.

Highway 38 reopened to the public around 4 p.m. and chains were required.