SQUAW VALLEY (California), March 5 — Skiers rushed to help a man buried by an avalanche at Squaw Valley, a popular California ski resort near Lake Tahoe yesterday.

"We just started digging, furiously digging,” skier Joseph Breault said.

Joseph Breault used his bare hands to help dig the man out trapped under several feet of snow.

"He opened up his eyes and he’s looking right at me and he says where’s my wife?”

That same storm also killed two snowboarders in Sierra Nevada.

The blizzard dumped several feet of snow and caused whiteout conditions.

In Southern California, the storm brought lots of rain.

The risk of mudslides forced the evacuation of thousands in the affluent hillside community of Montecito.

"Unfortunately this has got to become part of our new normal,” Santa Barbara county sheriff Bill Brown said.

Officials had feared heavy rains would lead to a repeat of January’s deadly mudslides that killed 21 people.

But the storm failed to materialise and caused only minor damage. — Reuters

Skiers rush to help a man buried by an avalanche at Squaw Valley, a popular California ski resort near Lake Tahoe. — Screen capture via Reuters video