Winter Storms Kill 3; Nevada Town Floods After Levee Bursts

Jan 06, 08:33 AM

By Martin Griffith

The Associated Press

FERNLEY, Nev.

A ruptured levee sent a frigid "wall of water" from a rain- swollen canal into this high desert town early Saturday, flooding hundreds of homes and forcing the rescue of more than a dozen people by helicopter and boat.

To the west, a dangerous layer of heavy snow covered the Northern California mountains as rain and wind from the third storm in as many days hit the West Coast. The storms have been blamed for at least three deaths, and hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in California, Oregon and Washington were without power Saturday.

No injuries were reported in the flooding in Fernley, about 30 miles east of Reno, after a section of the Truckee Canal up to 150 feet long broke soon after 4 a.m. As many as 3,500 people were temporarily stranded and an estimated 1,500 ended up being displaced from their homes, Lyon County Fire Chief Scott Huntley said Saturday night. About 25 people remained at a shelter set up at a high school after a peak of about 150 earlier in the day.

Eric Cornett estimated the water was about 2 feet deep and rising fast when he drove away from his home with his wife and three children.

"We saw water coming in the back door and tried to grab as much stuff as possible to save it. The water was rising very quickly and it was scary. The water was freezing. I couldn't even feel my feet," he said.

Huntley described it as a "wall of water about 2 feet high going down Farm District Road."

"In some places folks had to deal with 8 feet of water," he said. "Firefighters were in chest-deep water making rescues."

Two helicopters aided rescue crews in boats in rescuing at least 18 people. Local residents in fishing boats rescued many more.

By afternoon, the Truckee River water flowing into the canal was diverted upstream, said Ernie Schank, president of the Truckee- Carson Irrigation District. As the water receded, Fernley Mayor Todd Cutler said he had reports of damage to hundreds of homes.

One official suggested burrowing rodents might have contributed to the break in the levee along with the heavy rains, but the cause wasn't clear.

The National Weather Service recorded 1.91 inches of rain at Reno- Tahoe International Airport on Friday, a record. Reno averages only 8 inches of rainfall annually and Fernley only about 5 inches.

Gov. Jim Gibbons, who visited the shelter and toured the area by helicopter on Saturday, declared the county an emergency area. Federal Emergency Management Agency planned to conduct a damage assessment on Monday.

Avalanche warnings were posted for the backcountry of the central Sierra Nevada and flash-flood warnings were in effect for many areas of Southern California, where large swaths of hillsides had been denuded by the fall's wildfires.

Remote sensors and ski areas in the high Sierra Nevada had recorded up to 5 feet since Friday morning, and the west side of the Lake Tahoe Basin already had 4 to 5 feet by Friday night, the National Weather Service office in Reno said Saturday.

As much as 9 feet of snow was possible in the Sierra by today .

An 80-mile stretch of Interstate 80 from Reno to Applegate, Calif., was closed Saturday night as the fresh wave of snow moved in.

The weather was blamed for a 17-car pileup that closed the westbound lanes of I-80 near Patrick just east of the Reno-Sparks area Saturday afternoon.

East of Los Angeles, a 25-year-old woman died after her pickup was swept into a flood channel. Rescuers found her 36-year-old boyfriend clinging to a tree. Authorities said the couple unwittingly drove onto a flooded road in Chino because someone removed a barricade.

The storm also was blamed for the death of a woman killed by a falling tree in Oregon, and a falling branch killed a transportation worker in Northern California on Friday.

In the south, residents of Orange County canyons that were stripped by wildfires last fall - making them susceptible to mudslides - nervously watched weather reports to learn when they might be hit by the fierce wind and heavy downpours forecast for the area.

About 3,000 people in four canyons had been told to leave their homes by 7 p.m. Friday, Orange County fire Capt. Mike Blawn said. However, there was no indication how many obeyed, and mandatory evacuation orders were later lifted.

More than 450,000 homes and businesses from the Bay Area to the Central Valley were in the dark early Saturday, down from more than 1.6 million the day before. It could be days before all the lights are back on, Pacific Gas & Electric officials said.

the flooding

A section of the Truckee Canal broke around 4 a.m., spilling water into Fernley, about 30 miles east of Reno. No injuries were reported in the flooding, but as many as 3,500 people were temporarily stranded. Fernley Mayor Todd Cutler said he had reports of damage to hundreds of homes.

(c) 2008 Virginian - Pilot. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved. Winter Storms Kill 3; Nevada Town Floods After Levee Bursts
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