MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. — Worry and fear are running high in this snowbound Sierra Nevada ski town.
Buildings groan and crack under the strain of accumulated snowpack, forcing occupants to flee. Slabs of snow and ice plummet from rooftops with the force of falling pianos. Columns of smoke rise from homes whose gas lines have become fouled by snow, causing them to explode.
“We’re afraid of all the ways we could die here on any given day,” lamented Stacy Bardfield, a broker at Mammoth Sierra Properties and local resident of 47 years. “Will it be a roof caving in? A propane line blast? Fallen electric transmission lines?”
