Storm News for ye Californians

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yu888
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Joined: Jan 25, 2003
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Posted: Jan 06, 2008 - 02:11 PM
Post subject: Storm News for ye Californians

Looks like an amazing series of storms for the Golden State.

San jose Mercury News wrote:

New storm aims at California as thousands remain without power

SACRAMENTO—A third storm in as many days took aim at California on Saturday—this one packing lightning and frigid temperatures that threatened to send utility crews running for cover and slow efforts to restore power to nearly a half-million people.

At least two deaths were blamed on the storms. One woman died early Saturday when a vehicle was swept off a flooded road in Southern California. A transportation worker in Northern California also died after he was struck by a falling branch on Friday.

Rain and wind from the new storm arrived in the state capital even before the last one finished dumping more than 5 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada. Combined the back-to-back storms were still on pace to dump as much as 9 feet of snow on mountaintops and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared emergencies in three hard-hit counties.

In Southern California, thousands of residents were urged to remain away from homes that could be threatened by flooding and slides in wildfire-scarred areas, but mandatory evacuation orders were lifted.

To the east, a deluged canal levee ruptured early Saturday near Reno, Nevada sending 3 feet of water flowing through 800 homes—temporarily trapping 3,500 people and eventually leaving 1,500 displaced from their homes in the town of Fernley. Residents were rescued by helicopters and school buses. The canal carries Truckee River water to farms.

Lindsey Marie Erickson, 25, of Corona died when her pickup truck
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was swept into a flood channel in Chino, a San Bernardino County community east of Los Angeles.

Erickson and her boyfriend unwittingly drove onto a flooded road because someone removed a barricade. She called 911 around 1 a.m. to say the truck was sinking, police Lt. Al Cheatham said.

Rescuers found Rene Valencia, 36, of Corona, clinging to a tree. He was treated for cuts, bruises and hypothermia. Erickson's body was found about 1 1/2 miles downstream.

North of Sacramento, 57-year-old Milton Smith, a Yuba County public workers employee, died Friday night after he was struck by a falling branch while clearing a road.

For all the snow, rain, ice and flooding, meteorologists said final calculations on Saturday proved the second of the three storms would be remembered most for its dangerous wind gusts.

The National Weather Service recorded gusts up to 165 mph on mountaintops northwest of Lake Tahoe on Friday, while gale-force winds in valleys throughout Northern California flipped tractor trailer trucks, closed airports and sent trees crashing onto houses, cars and roads.

Saturday's storm promised weaker winds, peaking at 45 mph in the mountains, but the colder air mass also was expected to spin off lightning bolts that could halt efforts to restore power. Utility companies said they were concerned even minor winds could topple more trees and cause additional power outages because the first two storms had soaked tree roots.

In higher elevations, avalanche warnings were posted for the backcountry of the central Sierra.

"If you take the wind gusts, the snowfall and all of it together, it's definitely one of the biggest storms we've experienced in a number of years," said meteorologist Scott McGuire with the National Weather Service. "The 165 mph wind gust is very impressive, no one here's heard of a bigger one."

About 280,000 homes and businesses from the San Francisco Bay area to the Central Valley were without power Saturday, down from more than 1.6 million Friday, according to Pacific Gas & Electric and other regional utility providers. Some residents in remote coastal and mountain areas could be without power for several more days, said PG&E spokesman David Eisenhauer.

Additional rain and snow is expected to blanket Northern California through Thursday.

In the Sierra foothills where many had been without power for more than 24 hours, some hunkered down for the long haul while others packed up and left town ahead of the third storm.

"We're definitely roughing it up here," said Kevin Harris, who lost power Friday in his home in Gold Run, Calif., about 60 miles east of Sacramento. "We went shopping earlier—food, water, soda, pizza, toilet paper, first-aid kit, and gasoline for the generator."

Ron Privrasky stood at the door of his two-room Gold Run home wearing a stocking cap, sweat shirt and pajama bottoms, holding a cup of hot tea. He and his companion, Donna Craddock, were running a freezer, small television and satellite dish on generator power and said they had enough food and water to last for days.

"We're learning a lesson here, though" Privrasky said, "we're going to look for a bigger generator because that one won't power the refrigerator," he said.

Southern California Edison said about 262,600 customers had experienced outages since Friday night but only about 5,375 were still out Saturday night, according to spokesman Gil Alexander.

In Los Angeles, technicians worked to restore electricity to more than 14,000 city utility customers still without power late Saturday afternoon.

The National Weather Service office in Reno, Nev., said weather spotters had reported 2 feet to 3 feet of snow in the Lake Tahoe basin by Friday night, while remote sensors and ski areas in the high Sierra had recorded up to 5 feet by Saturday.

Along the southern rim of Lake Tahoe, the snow was still falling Saturday afternoon at Heavenly Mountain Resort, which had received about 4 feet by Saturday afternoon, said resort spokesman Russ Pecoraro.

"The forecasters are comparing it to a 1995 storm when we got 10 feet—that hasn't quite materialized yet, but we'll see," he said.

Two skiers were injured at nearby Squaw Valley ski resort Saturday when a mass of snow gave way on the resort's black diamond "KT22" run. The two skiers suffered leg injuries. The resort had triggered an intentional avalanche in the area early Saturday to make it safe for skiers.

Forecasters still expected as much as 9 feet of snow on the mountain range by Sunday night.

Interstate 80 across the Sierra, the main east-west link between Northern California and Nevada, reopened after being closed overnight. But by Saturday afternoon police were forcing motorists to use chains over a 60-mile stretch of the road and warned it may be closed again overnight.

Ken Gosting, executive director of Transportation Involves Everyone in Yosemite Valley, said US 50 from Pollack Pines to Meyers had been shut down because of the risk of avalanche.

"That essentially shuts down every pass in the Sierra," he said. "All the passes being closed is very unusual. It happens once every 15 years."

The Weather Service warned that "attempting to travel in the Sierra will put your life at risk."

In Southern California's Modjeska Canyon, part of a wildfire burn area, the rain left a thick coating of mud on roads but the area seemed otherwise unscathed Saturday.

Gene Corona, 72, worked in hip boots and a raincoat as he used a shovel to repair erosion in a channel he had dug to carry water away from his home.

"I made the rounds last night, every hour on the hour, whenever stuff started breaking through," he said. "I saved my house. It's my home, and insurance doesn't cover mudslides."

In fire-scarred San Diego County, authorities had placed 95,000 automated warning calls to residents of burn areas, but the region also appeared to have avoided significant problems.

"It looks like we escaped what we had feared, which was significant debris flow and flooding," said Holly Crawford, a spokeswoman for the county Office of Emergency Services.

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