O.C. Couple Missing in Storm Found

An Orange County couple stranded on a rugged, snow-buried mountain road near Lake Arrowhead for two days were rescued Tuesday night by search teams that trudged through a blustery winter storm in snowshoes and snowmobiles to find them.

Stephen Stevens, 24, of Fullerton and Cheryl McCaslin, 23, of Anaheim were rescued at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, 2 1/2 days after they left Orange County at 7 a.m. Sunday in a white Suzuki Samurai to take a scenic drive in the San Bernardino Mountains near Big Bear. Their 4-wheel-drive vehicle was stuck since Sunday in 4 to 6 feet of snow on a dirt road between Crab Flats Campground and Green Valley Lake, about 10 miles east of Lake Arrowhead.

The couple appeared to be unharmed when they were found trudging through the snow near their vehicle.

However, by 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, five of the rescue team members were still in a rough area of the mountains and had not yet returned to their station, and the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department sent out another rescue team of six to find them.

“Anytime people are out in this weather, I worry, no matter how well they are prepared,” said Capt. Walt Hanson of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

The Orange County couple had taken no provisions for winter weather since they planned to return that night when their 4-wheel-drive vehicle became stuck in Sunday’s blizzard.

When they failed to show up for work on Monday, their relatives called police, triggering a search by 25 rescue experts from the San Bernardino County sheriff’s officers and state Forestry Department. The rescue teams set out at about noon Tuesday, just as about several inches of new snow began to fall.

The couple were stranded in their vehicle for two nights as overnight temperatures in Big Bear dipped to about 10 degrees Sunday and Monday.

Stevens, in a brief interview from the Running Springs fire station, said the experience was “scary,” but “we stayed warm with plenty of clothes and we ran the heater in the car.

“I just want to go home and take a shower and sleep in my own bed,” Stevens said.

Mark Youngblood, search and rescue coordinator for the sheriff’s Big Bear station, said: “They stayed with their vehicle, and that’s what saved them. They maintained their body heat even though there were single-digit temperatures.”

Earlier that day, the couple’s families tensely waited for news. McCaslin’s parents, Loretta McCaslin, a school bus driver, and Herold McCaslin, a maintenance mechanic, left for Big Bear Tuesday morning to help with the search.

“I feel great,” McCaslin’s older brother, Timothy, 26, said late Tuesday when he heard the news the couple had been rescued. “I was happy, but now I’m a little mad. It was a pretty stupid thing to do, to go up to the mountains when there’s a storm coming. Hopefully they learned their lesson. If she’s all right, she’s never gonna live this one down.” McCaslin, an accountant with a temporary agency and part-time student at Cypress College, and Stevens, a plumber, have been seeing each other for several years.

Through Tuesday’s snowstorm, the rescue team covered 40 miles of rough, mountain roads. One sheriff’s officer, Sgt. John Hawk, walked 3 miles in snowshoes.

“In those places, you can have snow packed really deep. Four feet has already fallen in these current storms and the drifts can pile up even higher,” said Jim Bryant, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County sheriff’s office.

Tuesday’s snowstorm descended unexpectedly on Southern California, stranding thousands of commuters along routes blocked by snow, snarling traffic and closing portions of two freeways that had been damaged by rain.

A 100-foot section of the San Diego Freeway in Hawthorne sank after heavy rain undermined its foundation Tuesday, closing one northbound lane, the California Highway Patrol said. Two lanes of the southbound Ventura Freeway north of Ventura have been closed since Sunday when the roadbed collapsed in the rain, leaving a hole “as deep as a car and as long as a semi,” a CHP dispatcher said.

The CHP closed Interstate 5 in both directions on the Grapevine near Gorman on Tuesday afternoon, sending traffic on a 100-mile detour through the Antelope Valley. The detour itself was blocked half an hour later when snow clogged the Antelope Valley Freeway near Agua Dulce.

All northbound routes into the Antelope Valley were closed by early evening, cutting off thousands of motorists from their homes.

Those stranded by the snowfall jammed restaurants, gas stations and motel rooms or sat in cars on the shoulder of the Antelope Valley Freeway and other routes linking the valleys.

The freeway was closed to northbound traffic at Escondido Canyon Road near Acton and to southbound traffic at Palmdale Boulevard in Palmdale. The snow left the section in between littered with cars that had spun out and become stuck. Tow-truck operators shuttled some motorists back to roadblocks. Others had to walk.

“It was horribly frightening to be on that freeway,” said Mary Fairley, who was stranded on the Antelope Valley Freeway for two hours with a co-worker, Alberta Jones.

By 10 p.m., the Antelope Valley Freeway remained closed, but the CHP had begun escorting traffic over the Grapevine, a spokesman said.

Scores of skiers were trapped at the mountain resort of Wrightwood in the San Gabriel Mountains, filling hotels and restaurants to capacity. Among those trapped were 36 children from the San Fernando Valley and Westside whose bus skidded off the road and into a snowbank during an outing organized by the Sierra Ski and Pack Club. No one was injured, but trip organizers called parents to tell them not to expect the children home Tuesday.

Light rain fell in Orange County with snow falling on Santiago Peak, the county’s highest spot. But the brunt of the storm passed by sundown Tuesday, and this evening, desert-born winds will move in to dry out the county.

By 4 p.m., Tuesday’s rainfall measured 0.52 of an inch in Cypress; 0.20 in Santa Ana; 0.12 in Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Irvine and Laguna Beach; and .08 in El Toro. Santiago Peak received just 0.08 inch of rain and 0.24 inch of snow.

“We’re kind of catching up to our average (rainfall), which is much better than last year,” said Dennis Tebo, an engineering technician for the county’s Environmental Management Agency.

Since July, Santa Ana has received about 3.5 inches of rain, compared to its average of 4.65 inches. Santiago Peak has received about 10 inches, within an inch of its average.

Although the local rainfall helps cut usage because people irrigate their yards less, it does little to re-nourish the county’s water supply, which comes mainly from the Sierra Nevada and the Colorado River.

Steve Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc. which provides forecasts for The Times, said the storm should have moved to the east by dawn today, leaving clear skies, dry winds and high temperatures from the mid-50s to mid-60s.

Another, weaker storm system is expected to bypass Southern California on Friday, with generally clear weather Saturday, but Burback said a third storm could bring more rain by Sunday.

Times staff writers Eric Malnic and Donnette Dunbar contributed to this story.