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News & Features
From the Idyllwild Town Crier weekly newspaper, 12.25.08 edition.
Good
Samaritans
live in Idyllwild
By J.P. Crumrine, News
Editor
For most of us on the Hill, the rain, nearly 2 feet of snow and the
eventual power failure created either an inconvenience, a complication
or a predicament. But for some local residents, this combination
manifested a critical life problem.
For Betsy Bliss and Nelson Nesbitt, Christmas will never seem so
special and dear as this year.
Reba Coulter, Mike Kellner and Jamie Gooch were alert and took time to
investigate. While professional emergency responders were an important
part of saving two lives, in the absence of the concern, care and
action of these three individuals, the professionals’ aid may have been
too late.
Betsy Bliss
A single, 86-year-old woman lives in Fern Valley. A very large
snowstorm begins Monday. On Wednesday, her electricity fails. The snow
keeps falling. She sleeps under six blankets.
Thursday, the sun appears. Temperatures remain frigid. The power is
still missing. She consumes meals of dry cereal and worries about
Angel, her little dog.
Friday arrives and is closing. With no power and only cereal for three
days, Bliss’ life and survival become a challenge.
She devises a plan. If she can pull her barbeque grill inside and light
it, she might have heat for one night. Through the deep snow, she could
only haul it to the door. Then as the sun dims, she dials 659-6208, the
Mountain Community Fire Safe Council (FSC) office. They have helped her
clean her yard.
Late Friday afternoon, after a long week, the FSC office is nearly
empty. Executive Director Reba Coulter, who’s getting ready to leave,
hears the phone again. The ringing stops her and she answers.
“It was a lady, crying,” Coulter said. “She said she could not last
much longer.” For three days, she had been without
power or heat. She was embarrassed to call the Idyllwild Fire
Department (IFD), according to Coulter.
Coulter calmed Bliss and said she would get her help. She called IFD,
who said there was no record of checking on her earlier in the week.
Then Mike Kellner arrived at the FSC office where he works as project
manager.
Bliss wanted 5 gallons of propane. Kellner immediately recognized a
danger sign and drove off to Fern Valley. Shortly after arriving at
Bliss’ house, Robert Clark and Kirsten Fandrich, IFD reserve
firefighters, arrived and tested Bliss’ alertness. She was clear and
cogent, Kellner said.
“She had spent eight weeks in a VA hospital and didn’t want to return,”
Kellner said. “I used her concern for Angel to get her to leave.”
While Kellner spoke to Karen Patterson, Idyllwild HELP Center executive
director, Clark and Fandrich contacted the American Red Cross, who
contacted Dave and Veronica Alt, the local Red Cross officials. They
arranged for Bliss to spend the night at the Bluebird Inn.
Kellner took her to the fire station where Edison had a command center
while restoring power throughout the Hill. There, she had warm food,
the first in 72 hours.
On Saturday, he drove her to her other house in Warner Springs. There
she is spending time with a friend who says she’s doing much better,
according to Kellner.
Nelson Nesbitt
“He spent years plowing snow all over this Hill,” said Rene Nesbitt,
Nelson’s wife. On Thursday, his plow was not attached to the truck. A
friend had a plow, but was a novice. Nesbitt agreed to meet her near
Highway 243 at the base of his road, Azalea Trails, and give her
instruction. The practice would result in getting his road plowed.
Two hours later, Rene began worrying. Her husband had been having
trouble with his balance, and doctors had recently diagnosed multiple
sclerosis.
“Why did I let him go?” she was asking herself.
Then she called Jamie Gooch, a young neighbor who lives at the end of
the road. She had not seen Nelson. Gooch called another neighbor who
said they heard someone in the snow crying out.
Gooch put on her coat, boots and tramped through snow several feet
deep.
“There was no way emergency service could get to him without hiking
in,” Rene said.
Gooch found Nelson, already turning blue, and helped him stand and
hobble down the road. Nelson is 6-foot, 2-inches tall and weighs 260
pounds. Gooch weighs less than half that, yet had the capability to
help.
The Pine Cove Station 23 ambulance arrived as she and Nesbitt
approached her house. Nelson sat in the warmth of the ambulance until
his vital signs recovered and stabilized. He refused a trip to the
hospital. Preferring to spend the night with a friend in Pine Cove, he
came home Friday after the road had been plowed.
“The rescue team said he had maybe 20 to 30 more minutes,” Rene said.
“It took a little while but he’s improving.”
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