SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The Grubers are happy to be back in San Diego, but the anxiety from their trip stayed with them.
“I have PTSD: I’m like, 'No you can’t eat that much’ oh wait we’re home now we have food," said Wendy Gruber.
"It was a whole different experience, like survival mode for so long.”
The Gruber family was excited to drive up to Lake Arrowhead on February 20. The camera on the front deck of their cabin shows there was barely any snow when they first arrived. A couple of days in, the situation drastically changed.
“By the morning we had probably four-five feet of snow just overnight.”
You can see from this time-lapse how quickly the snow piled up around their cabin. The Grubers and their neighbors had to constantly shovel it off to protect their cars and homes.
“This is our lives right now. We wake up, we shovel, go to sleep, wake up, another four feet of snow.”
The stress of being trapped worsened when they watched an empty cabin burn to the ground after the gas meter broke. The roofs of two nearby grocery stores caved in because of the heavy snow.
The family walked for four hours to get food from a local gas station, but they weren't alone.
“People were hiking up to our cabin to get food for us and our dogs. There was a hunter that gave us meat.”
After two weeks of struggle, they returned to Scripps Ranch on Sunday. The family says they're grateful to the community that helped them survive.
Wendy's relatives are selling shirts on Facebook with 100% of proceeds going toward Lake Arrowhead rescues. If you'd like to help, click here.
