From the Archives: Cars abandoned during 1983 snowstorm
This photo by staff photographer Con Keyes appeared in the Feb. 4, 1983, Los Angeles Times. In an accompanying article, staff writer Jack Jones reported:
Stranded motorists and students emerged from schools and other shelters in the Antelope Valley and in San Diego County on Thursday as heavy snowfall turned to slush or melted away entirely under clearing skies. …
For the record:
12:28 p.m. Aug. 18, 2019A previous version of the photo caption with this post referred to California State Route 14 as Interstate 14.
Wednesday’s weather front pummeled many Southern California areas with fierce winds–including gusts up to 100 m.p.h. near Bakersfield–and dumped as much as two feet of snow at remarkable low elevations in the foothills around Los Angeles, in San Diego County and in the Antelope Valley.
Thursday morning, with eight inches of snow still on the ground at Palmdale, several Antelope Valley schools, a Mojave veterans center and scores of motels were vacated by the more than 1,000 travelers who had been forced to seek shelter overnight after being rescued from snowbound cars and trucks.
Members of four-wheel-drive vehicle groups helped law enforcement officers get the stranded motorists in out of the cold to makeshift Red Cross centers.
Numerous abandoned cars still awaited their owners Thursday morning, especially at the Antelope Valley Freeway and Palmdale Boulevard in Palmdale. …
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