Californians are desperately digging out their homes on Friday after a “once in a generation storm” dumped up to seven feet of snow.
Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency for 13 counties to push the pace of disaster response and relief.
In the San Bernardino mountains many residents remain trapped.
Around-the-clock snow removal is underway, but it could take more than a week to reach some areas.
Residents are grappling with power outages, roof collapses and lack of baby formula and medicine.
Many have been trapped in their homes for a week, their cars buried in snow. County workers fielded more than 500 calls for assistance on Wednesday while firefighters tackled possible storm-related explosions and evacuated the most vulnerable with snowcats.
Californians are usually elated to see snow-covered mountains from Los Angeles and drive a couple of hours up to sled, ski and snowboard.
But what started out as a beautiful sight has become a hazardous nightmare for those renting vacation homes in the scenic, tree-lined communities or who live there year-round. Back-to-back-snowstorms have blanketed the region repeatedly, giving people no time to even shovel out.
So much snow fell that ski resorts had to close and roads became impassable. No snow was falling Thursday, and authorities said they hoped to clear as much as possible from the roads while the weather was benign.
The snowfall, however, is credited with helping reduce, and in some areas eliminate, drought conditions in California.
The storm continues to cause havoc in the US bringing tornadoes to Texas and Louisiana last night and leaving more than 300,000 without power.
Wind gusts of over 70 mph (112 kph) were reported in Texas as tornado watches were issued into Thursday night in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
National Weather Service teams planned to head out Friday to survey areas for likely tornado damage in the storm's path, which stretched from southeast Oklahoma into Texas and neighboring Arkansas and Louisiana.
More than 310,000 utility customers in Texas had no electricity as of Thursday night, according to poweroutage.us. That was down from 346,000 early in the evening.
FlightAware.com reported Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field had tallied more than 400 cancellations total, either to or from the airports.
Several school districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area canceled after-school activities and events because of the forecast.
