The news can often seem like off-kilter “reality” television, a surreal landscape of politicians behaving badly and pundits desperately attempting to top each other with the most outrageous takes imaginable, all purposed for bringing maximum attention to themselves, not whatever philosophy or policy they purport to present. Varying between alarming and amusing, these antics serve as much as a distraction from the daily grind as information demanding action. Even genuine human tragedies sometimes appear staged, as minds numbed by too many movies, television shows, and role-playing video games struggle to find separation between fictitious and genuine images flashing across our screens.

That said, when people you know and love suddenly find themselves in a genuine fight for their lives against outside forces, be they man-made or generated by nature, the situation immediately changes. This is one of those stories, set amid the recent snowstorm that hammered the San Bernardino Mountains. Jennifer Van Laar has written here at RedState about the government bungling of assisting citizenry trapped by record snowfall and the resulting terrible cost in lost lives (BREAKING: Newsom Found; Took ‘Personal Trip’ to Baja While Snowed-in Californians Are Still Desperately Waiting for Help, Sure, Gavin Newsom Went to Mexico While Trapped Californians Died, But Don’t Call it His ‘Ted Cruz’ Moment, Gavin Newsom’s Incompetent Response to Blizzard Emergency Has a Growing Body Count and Death Toll Climbs to 12 in San Bernardino Mountains, While Newsom’s Focused on Walgreens Instead). The following is a story of survival and resistance by a family I could not love more if they were my own flesh and blood.

The parents are retired missionaries, having spent decades living abroad and still actively running support groups for other missionary families. They live full-time in Cedarpines Park, which is west of Crestline in the San Bernardino Mountains. Cedarpines Park is one of those places where should you ask an average GPS to find it, the response will be, “Wait, what — this is an actual location?” It is the perfect place for seclusion-loving people. Cedarpines Park is unincorporated. Thus, all services fall under San Bernardino County’s jurisdiction.

The parents have three children, two daughters and one son, all living in the area. The youngest daughter is a single mom. She lives next door to her parents with two of her three sons.

Based on the snowstorm’s initial forecast, the youngest daughter arranged to stay with family down the mountain so she could get to her job in Highland, which is just east of San Bernardino. She left her sons, both strapping young lads to use an old expression, with her parents so they could help with any necessary snow removal. An ample food supply, plus a backup generator with plenty of fuel in case of power failure, were ready and waiting. As the forecast was not dire, this arrangement would have been more than sufficient under normal circumstances. Unfortunately, the weather forecast badly underestimated the storm’s power.

The snow arrived on February 23^rd. Things started okay, with the two boys able to keep their grandparent’s driveway clear. As an aside, I’ve visited the home several times, and keeping their driveway clear of snow is not easy due to its steep angle. It soon became apparent that clearing the driveway was the least of their worries.

As the days went on, the snow became unrelenting. The power went out on February 24^th, with the family using a combination of generator power and old-fashioned logs in the fireplace to keep warm. The road to the house grew impassable. Despite the circumstances, the family found a bit of humor in the situation, remarking that the snow was serving nicely as a substitute freezer. Still, it was apparent that evacuating was the only viable option in the face of six-foot snow piles and equally long icicles.

While San Bernardino County officials dithered and delegated without accomplishing anything, Southern California Edison put in the work and restored power on March 1^st. The family was still trapped, but they at least had light and heat despite running out of fuel for the generator.

On March 4^th, a backhoe managed to get through and remove a three to four-foot berm blocking the driveway. Later that day, the family managed to get out via a Herculean effort by other family members. The parent’s son and grandson from their oldest daughter had tried to get up the mountain, but law enforcement prevented them from doing so despite the grandson being a local resident who was supposedly thereby entitled to gain entry. At this point, the grandson’s sister’s boyfriend contacted his boss, who earlier had managed to get up the mountain through a fire road that connected to the main road into the community higher up than the blockade. He had at his disposal a truck with 40-inch tires and custom-built chains. What usually takes 25 minutes from the bottom of the mountain to where the parents live ended up taking 5 hours, but it worked.

Since this family is incapable of not helping those in need, it has helped organize Operation Mountain Strong to get food and supplies up the mountain to those still trapped. Using both helicopters and trucks, plus a healthy dose of defying inept county officials demanding they do the same nothing at which the county has excelled, the family is packing supplies and hauling them up the mountain as best they can, when needed going house to house on foot to assist people.

Even in the face of lives needlessly lost, this remarkable family shows us how things get done. No partisan posturing, no soundbite promoting. It is people helping people. As stated, I could not love this family any more if they were my own flesh and blood. This is where the news stops being a slick production glibly presented. It is real. Painfully, yet inspiringly real.