Tehachapi News

OPINION: The case for bad-weather buddies

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There has to be a better way to communicate with motorists who are stranded when our infamously wicked winds and snow storms close all access to Tehachapi.

Sitting in the dark in a car that's freezing because the gas tank is ticking toward empty, buffeted by high winds and rocks and sand, surrounded by massive semi trucks with nowhere to go - that's not the time to be cut off from human communication.

That was my situation on Dec. 7, and that of many others on both sides of the mountains.

I had left the lavish SpaceShipTwo rollout at the Mojave Air and Space Port at about the time - it turns out - that authorities began their prescient evacuation that got everybody out of the structures before the wind brought them crashing down.

I rode one of the comfortable coaches back to the Mariah Inn, picked up my car - a 1999 Ford Ranger - and turned left to connect with Hwy. 58 at the east overpass. I had just enough gas to get up the hill.

I ended up in a parking lot that used to be a freeway. It was about 8 o'clock.

I turned off my car, hunkered down in my warm down parka and waited. I watched cars pull out, cross the median and head east. I decided not to do that because, with my luck, I would get stuck.

The semi trucks purred away but the cars eventually turned off their motors and went dark. I wondered who was in those cars. Did they need help? Were there children or babies who were hungry and crying? Were there older people who needed attention?

At 10:40 p.m., a CHP officer drove by on the shoulder, stopping to tell the drivers that the road would be closed until 6:30 a.m. He said we could turn on the median and go into Mojave, but the motels were full.

Dreamtime at Denny's

I turned around on the median - didn't get stuck - and went to Denny's in Mojave. I treated myself to a giant hot fudge sundae, trolled around on my Blackberry and fell asleep with my head against the wall.

At about 3 a.m., a young woman walked through Denny's, telling people the Red Cross had opened a shelter at Mojave High School.

“Why not?” I said, and found the school gym. The Red Cross workers, alerted to the situation at 1 a.m., were just unpacking cots and blankets.

A dozen people bedded down, spread around at discreet distances in the gym. Amazingly, all went quiet and people slept.

At 7:10 a.m. a blaring bell woke us refugees up. The school needed the gym. I took some Red Cross coffee and a doughnut and thanked the shelter workers.

A while later, the highway was open. I went straight to work without stopping at home.

Judging by the anguished comments on our web site from travelers similarly stuck on the freeway that night, we need to lock in new ways to communicate during times of road closure and emergency.

Drivers first have a responsibility to prepare properly, said CHP Public Information Officer Ed Smith, with water, food, blankets and a study of the weather. When the CHP closes the roads, it's to save lives. He said that on Monday evening, Hwy. 58 up to Sand Canyon was a sheet of ice and the wind was blowing CHP cruisers across the road.

But he is open to suggestions on how to communicate better during road closures. He's listening.

Some drivers who were stuck on the Bakersfield side (which is a different CHP coverage area) had no idea they would be sitting there until 6:30 a.m. According to comments on the Tehachapi News web site, there was no word on local radio stations and no personal contact with stranded drivers.

Human contact

The officer who drove by me that night, explaining the situation, meant the world to me. I realize that the public safety agencies are stretched to the limit, but a friendly cruiser driving slowly along the shoulder where people are stuck, fussing, fuming and afraid can be a life-affirming action.

I suggest that the CHP contact radio stations that people can pick up in their cars during a storm. The CBS radio station from San Francisco for some reason comes in loud and clear at night. The NPR station in Mojave (based in Santa Monica) also comes in clearly.

There must be better ways to make timely, accurate road closure and shelter information available to cell phones/iPhones/Blackberries in specific ZIP codes or area codes. Internet site information does not always translate easily to the smaller format.

And why was it left to an enterprising young woman to gather the lost sheep at Denny's? Smith said in the past he has directed stranded people to churches that were sheltering. On Monday, he said, the CHP was not informed that the Red Cross had opened a shelter in Mojave.

Clued-in restaurant managers could provide information and make a huge difference.
In the interest of personal responsibility, I’m lining up my own bad weather buddies on both sides of the mountains. I can reciprocate when they get stuck up here.

Any volunteers?