Washington Mountain Community Cut Off All Week by Storm Skykomish residents running low on food and fuel rely on donations with power restoration days away Snow covered the land by Steven's Pizza in Skykomish, Wash. Photo: Mike Siegel/Associated Press By Jim Carlton Jan. 17, 2020 10:07 am ET A remote mountain area in Washington state has been almost entirely cut off from the outside since a mammoth snowfall last weekend, leaving stranded residents dependent on volunteers to bring in food, water and heating fuel. The shut-off began last Sunday after a snowstorm dropped about three feet of snow in the Cascade Mountains town 70 miles east of Seattle, resulting in numerous trees falling onto roads and power lines. About 1,000 people in the town of Skykomish and some neighboring communities were left in the dark. The lack of electricity has meant many well pumps don’t work, leaving residents without water, and food supplies are dwindling with refrigerators not working and restaurants closed. Power may not be restored for days, officials at Puget Sound Energy said, as hundreds of trees have yet to be removed. “We have had reports of people running out of food and water, and they’re running out of fuel for generators and wood for fuel,” said Trooper Heather Axtman of the Washington State Patrol. No serious injuries have been reported, according to the King County Office of Emergency Management. A winter storm dropped about three feet of snow in the Cascade Mountains town last weekend. Photo: Mike Siegel/Associated Press The predicament illustrates the vulnerabilities people face living in rural areas across the mountainous West. Wildfire destroyed the mountain city of Paradise, Calif., in 2018, and a landslide wiped out part of Oso, Wash., in 2014, in the same mountain range as Skykomish. Like many rural Westerners, residents of Skykomish stock extra food and have emergency generators for the inevitable power outages, but they say they have seen nothing like this. “We live up here and expect we will lose power sometimes, but when you get this far out [on an outage], you’re running out on almost everything,” said 51-year-old Steve Larner, owner of a local pizza shop. The problem this time, say state and local officials, is that a storm with unusually heavy snow caused hundreds of trees to collapse onto the streets and roadways of this former railroad town, blocking side streets and the main artery in and out, U.S. Route 2. The blockage kept both volunteer and government crews from bringing supplies into the community until Wednesday, when Route 2 partially reopened. Related Blackouts, Disasters Give Generators a Sales Boost After Long Drought, Record Snowfall in West Lifts Ski Areas “Not having coffee or restrooms has been the hardest,” said Mr. Larner, who prepared pizzas by flashlight to serve several hundred motorists who were trapped the first night before being escorted out by authorities. Supplies are being distributed in the Skykomish Masonic Lodge and local fire station, as some residents live on difficult-to-access mountain roads. One of the biggest issues has been keeping enough fuel to run generators for heating on nights that can dip below freezing. Garry Vire, a 39-year-old small-business owner, helped coordinate a convoy Wednesday of needed supplies, including generator fuel. But he said much more would be needed before power was restored. He has been buying supplies with about $18,000 in donations he has raised on a GoFundMe page. “Five hundred gallons of fuel is not a lot—enough to get 100 people through the night with generators—and that alone is $5,000,” said Mr. Vire on Thursday, as he shopped in a Seattle suburb for supplies to deliver on Friday. Write to Jim Carlton at jim.carlton@wsj.com https://www.wsj.com/articles/washington-mountain-community-cut-off-all-week-by-storm-11579273639