RENO, Nev. — For farmers and ranchers caught in the grip of the long and ruinous drought across the West, the heavy snow falling in the Sierra Nevada and other parts of the region is nothing short of white gold.

"The roads are a little icy, so you have to drive a little slower, but being farmers, we welcome all this moisture," Sue Frey of Fallon said from her family's third-generation Rambling River Ranch in Nevada.

The Sierra Nevada has gotten more than 12 feet of snow over the past two weeks — the most in nearly a century — and Southern California and the Southwest have been drenched with some of the heaviest rains on record.

The snow and the torrential rain have not broken the drought yet. It could take years of such weather to do that. But it's a start, and it has raised people's spirits, especially in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Rescuers on Thursday also raised the spirits of about 135 people cut off for at least four days by flooding in the mountains above Los Angeles by airlifting food and medical supplies.

"It's been tense around here. We're running out of food, so when we get our food shipped in, it should keep the edge off things," Lt. Tim Dowling of the volunteer fire department in the stranded community of Follows Camp said by cell phone.

The raging, storm-swollen San Gabriel River washed out three bridges around Follows Camp, tucked into a canyon in the rugged Angeles National Forest about 30 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

"We're completely separated from the rest of the world," Dowling said.

Residents had spotty radio and telephone contact because the batteries of the solar-powered cellular tower ran down. It was not until Wednesday, when the skies cleared, that a search-and-rescue team was able to fly in to assess the situation.

The helicopter team flew out a heart patient needing special medication and a 10-year-old boy who had been visiting friends.

Drought has gripped the Western United States for five to seven years in most places, and up to a decade in some spots. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey say it could be the worst drought in 500 years. Reservoirs have drained, rivers have dropped, and the mountain snowpack — the source of three-fourths of the West's water — has been meager.

The dry weather has taken its toll in the form of water shortages, catastrophic wildfires and crop failures that have put farmers out of business and sent small farm towns into a slow, sad decline.

Against that background, the deluge is bringing smiles, but the joy is tempered. Climatologists warn the record rain and snow have missed the Northwest, and the gains could be erased by another hot, dry spring.