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School’s Out, Snowmen In : Winter Wonderland Dazzles Santa Clarita

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Times Staff Writers

Santa Clarita turned a day of cold and snow into an impromptu winter festival Wednesday, sending children to the slippery slopes and parents to snug firesides.

As thick, wet snowflakes the size of nickels drifted out of the sky and freeway ties with the outside world were cut, schools shut down and businesses, shops and government offices closed.

About six inches of snow fell, the heaviest since a 12-inch storm in 1974, Sheriff’s Deputy Dick Verner said.

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The many residents of the Santa Clarita Valley who commute over the Santa Susana Mountains to jobs in the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles took the day off after police closed the snow-slick roads on mountain passes out of the area. The California Highway Patrol blocked on-ramps and off-ramps to the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways Wednesday morning, creating miles-long backups at major intersections.

‘Stay Home,’ People Told

“We’re telling people to stay home and get off the roads and just wait this thing out,” Officer Ralph Elvira said.

And so they did.

Customers with armloads of mittens, boots and winter hats lined up 15 deep at the Sports Chalet in Newhall.

The store’s 400 plastic, saucer-shaped snow-sliding toys were sold out by early afternoon, store manager Whitney Wilkinson said.

That left only six old-fashioned sleds with runners. At $25, they cost more than twice what a plastic disk did, but 7-year-old Johnny Schoonvel’s father sprang for one anyway.

“First me and my dad were building snow forts and now we get to go sledding,” Johnny bubbled.

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“Yeah, look at what this says on it,” a smiling Barry Schoonvel, 40, said to his son. “It says ‘Speedy.’ ”

“It’s an incredibly festive day,” said the elder Schoonvel, who normally commutes to Chatsworth. “Everyone in the neighborhood is outside, happy to be off work. We booed the people who tried to go to work.”

Los Angeles County pickup trucks fitted with plow blades kept main streets open throughout the area, at a cost of $8,000 a day to the city, Santa Clarita officials said.

But by noon traffic was light, except to supermarkets thronged with shoppers stocking up on food to wait out the storm.

“It seems like everybody had the same idea,” said Karen Hall of Newhall, coming out of a Lucky market with enough food to last several days. “I’ve met most of my neighbors here.”

Joe Dunham, manager of the store, said there were heavy runs on cognac, firewood and film, as adults prepared for a night by the fireplace and families rushed out to photograph each other in the unusual snowfall.

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Snowman Built

City workers built a snowman in front of the Santa Clarita City Hall and about 20 of them posed for pictures, women employees standing in slush in open-toed pumps.

“This is an unusual day and we’re doing unusual things,” said City Manager George Caravalho. “We might as well enjoy the snow while it’s here.”

In the civic center in Valencia, hand-drawn “closed” signs were posted on the Los Angeles County office building, the library and the municipal courthouse.

That disappointed Bill Read, 41, of Newhall, who showed up with an unpaid traffic ticket. As long as he couldn’t get to work in Thousand Oaks, he said, “I thought this would be my one opportunity to get this thing paid.”

He read the notice on the courthouse door and trudged off, saying, “I guess I’ll just have to rent a video, go home, kick back and relax.”

The five school districts in the valley canceled classes for the day, freeing 22,000 students who turned every available slope into a sledding ground and covered the streets with snowmen and even snow women, built with triangular, skirt-shaped blocks.

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“Every kid is outside soaking wet and freezing but loving every minute of it,” said Donna Grindey, 49, a Valencia mother.

‘No School’

“This is great--no school and snow fights,” proclaimed Adam Wright, 10, of Valencia as he skidded through the snow on his bicycle. “Look, it really fishtails.”

Officials of the school districts “are all going to wait until Thursday” to decide whether to keep the schools closed for a second day, said Robert Nolet, superintendent of the Sulphur Springs School District.

There was concern about the safety of children on school buses, Nolet said, but the main problem was the large number of school employees cut off by freeway closures because they live in the San Fernando and Antelope valleys.

The Golden State Freeway was closed Wednesday morning from Lyons Avenue, just south of Magic Mountain, to Lake Hughes Road in Castaic. Some northbound traffic later was allowed through under CHP escort. The Antelope Valley Freeway was closed from Sierra Highway to Palmdale until the afternoon.

“Surprisingly, there have been no big problems yet,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Harvey Cantor. Deputies responded to 15 accidents in the Santa Clarita Valley.

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