Snow drift strands 14 Afton Mountain families

AFTON MOUTAIN — More than 14 families atop Afton Mountain regained access to the rest of the world Thursday, after authorities cleared several snow drifts along the Howardsville Turnpike.

As a Virginia Department of Transportation worker dug through 6-foot snow drifts with a rock grader, Tony Pugh waited patiently in his Chevrolet pickup truck. For years, residents on the mountain have employed Pugh to plow their drives and private roads, he said. This isn’t the first time he’s run into seemingly impenetrable walls of snow.

“This is Mother Nature at her finest,” he said. “Because people in the Valley don’t believe what’s going on right here. We get snow drifts up here taller than I am.”

Pugh, who stands taller than 5 1/2 feet, said he got a call in the early morning from several people, all looking for help getting out of their subdivisions.

Linda Orebaugh, 61, and John Orebaugh, 58, said they’d been trapped since Feb. 5.

“I have asthmatic bronchitis and he has diabetes,” Linda said. “We’ve been sick since Friday evening and we don’t know whether it’s pneumonia or what.”

After missing almost a week of work at the Little Debbie plant in Stuarts Draft, she said she’s worried about losing her job.

“I’ve called them every day to let them know I’ve been sick and can’t get out,” Orebaugh said. “The state won’t come up here because [the road is] private, and we don’t know that many people that will come up here to get us out without charging us an arm and a leg.”

The Orebaughs said this was their second winter on the mountain since moving from Greenville in 2008.

“Would I move back? Yes,” Linda said. “I’m not happy with it at all. It’s very nice in the summer - but I sat up here the other day and watched two deer digging and pawing for food with snow up to their bellies, and I couldn’t get out to throw them anything to eat.”

Further down the mountain, Steve Kohrherr stood beside Pugh and watched as the VDOT machine bullied through the snow.

“I live up there behind the Swannanoa Mansion,” Kohrherr said. “The last time we were back there for five days before we got out.”

Pugh laughed as he remembered the December blizzard.

“These people can’t get out until I get back there to get them out!” he said.