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summitone
Active member
Good news, thought it deserved it's own thread.
CONEJOS, Colorado (AP) -- Six snowmobilers missing in the snowy Colorado mountains were found alive Monday, the Conejos County Sheriff's Department said.
Matthew Harrell digs out his car on Sunday as a wrecker prepares to tow it near Gold Run, California.
1 of 2 The snowmobilers and two skiers had been reported missing in heavy snow in the mountains of southern Colorado.
The snowmobilers are two couples from Farmington, New Mexico, and their two children, ages 14 and 13, said Betty Groen, the stepmother of one of the men.
Donna Oney of the Colorado State Patrol said two skiers were missing 40 miles away in the Wolf Creek ski area. Wolf Creek had reported 39 inches of snow. Watch dangerous conditions for search teams »
In the mountains east of Los Angeles, authorities searched for a 62-year-old man who went hiking Friday just before the storm began. Searchers last had cell phone contact with him early Saturday, before snow began falling in the area.
In Nevada, more residents who fled nearly 300 homes after a canal's earthen levee flooded hoped to return Monday, but faced dealing with the damage left by the wave of frigid water that crashed through the town.
Some residents were permitted to return Sunday, and authorities hoped more could come back as waters receded in this northern Nevada desert town hard-hit by a West Coast storm system.
Most were dreading what they would find. Freezing temperatures had left streets and yards covered in ice and homes sat in as much as 8 feet of water.
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"We don't know what we're going to do next," said Silvia Cansdales, a 32-year-old mother of three whose family -- like most in town -- didn't have flood insurance. "I don't even want to think about what we're going to return to."
The storm piled up to 11 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains and toppled nearly 500 miles of power lines in California.
More than 145,000 homes and businesses in Northern California and the Central Valley were still without power late Sunday, down from more than 215,000 earlier in the day.
"The biggest issue is just the sheer magnitude of the storm that hit and the number of individual locations affected," said Jon Tremayne, a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. spokesman.
National Weather Service meteorologist Angus Barkhuff said some parts of Northern California would get a reprieve from the rain and snow on Monday. But in the mountains, "there's a chance of snow and snow showers all the way through Thursday," he said.
A major road through the Sierra Nevada was closed for several hours.
A 25-year-old woman died when she and her boyfriend unwittingly drove onto a flooded road in Chino, California. A 57-year-old public worker also died Friday after he was struck by a falling branch while clearing a road north of Sacramento, California.
Seven family members were hospitalized after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning from a propane lantern they brought inside their home outside Chico, California. A boy in the house woke up when he heard his sister collapse in the bathroom, Sgt. Jim Miranda of the Glenn County Sheriff's Department said. Several were unconscious or nauseous when they arrived at a hospital Saturday.
Utility officials warned against using gas-powered portable heating sources inside, saying it was extremely dangerous. A house fire Saturday in Sacramento was thought to be caused by candles being used to light the home during the power outage.
In the snowy Sierra foothills, workers trying to restore power were being forced to rely on snowshoes, all-terrain vehicles and helicopters to repair equipment in the most remote spots.
The irrigation canal failure at Fernley released a wave of frigid water into the town early Saturday. The canal was temporarily repaired by late in the day, but as much as a square mile of the town was still under water at least 2 feet deep Sunday as ice impeded drainage.
An initial assessment Sunday found 290 homes received varying amounts of flood damage, said Kim Toulouse, spokesman for the Nevada Division of Emergency Management. No injuries were reported in the town of 20,000 people about 30 miles east of Reno.
Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Sunday launched a preliminary damage assessment to determine whether a request for a presidential emergency declaration was justified.
Despite heavy rain Friday, Gov. Jim Gibbons said the canal was not full when the bank failed. "This indicates to me there might have been a structural weakness over the years. Nobody knows and we don't want to speculate at this time," he said.
One possible factor that officials have mentioned was rodents burrowing holes in the earthen bank, which also was involved in a smaller collapse that flooded about 60 Fernley homes in December 1996.
But Ernie Schank, president of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District, said Sunday that a geologist had turned up no evidence of burrowing animals near the site of the break. The cause may never be known, he said.
"It'll be hard to pinpoint the cause because the evidence is washed away," said Schank, whose agency operates the 31-mile-long earthen canal. E-mail to a friend
CONEJOS, Colorado (AP) -- Six snowmobilers missing in the snowy Colorado mountains were found alive Monday, the Conejos County Sheriff's Department said.
Matthew Harrell digs out his car on Sunday as a wrecker prepares to tow it near Gold Run, California.
1 of 2 The snowmobilers and two skiers had been reported missing in heavy snow in the mountains of southern Colorado.
The snowmobilers are two couples from Farmington, New Mexico, and their two children, ages 14 and 13, said Betty Groen, the stepmother of one of the men.
Donna Oney of the Colorado State Patrol said two skiers were missing 40 miles away in the Wolf Creek ski area. Wolf Creek had reported 39 inches of snow. Watch dangerous conditions for search teams »
In the mountains east of Los Angeles, authorities searched for a 62-year-old man who went hiking Friday just before the storm began. Searchers last had cell phone contact with him early Saturday, before snow began falling in the area.
In Nevada, more residents who fled nearly 300 homes after a canal's earthen levee flooded hoped to return Monday, but faced dealing with the damage left by the wave of frigid water that crashed through the town.
Some residents were permitted to return Sunday, and authorities hoped more could come back as waters receded in this northern Nevada desert town hard-hit by a West Coast storm system.
Most were dreading what they would find. Freezing temperatures had left streets and yards covered in ice and homes sat in as much as 8 feet of water.
Don't Miss
KOAT: Snowmobilers missing in Colorado
Homes remain flooded after levee break
Storms cause trouble in Nevada
Wicked winter storm pounds California
"We don't know what we're going to do next," said Silvia Cansdales, a 32-year-old mother of three whose family -- like most in town -- didn't have flood insurance. "I don't even want to think about what we're going to return to."
The storm piled up to 11 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains and toppled nearly 500 miles of power lines in California.
More than 145,000 homes and businesses in Northern California and the Central Valley were still without power late Sunday, down from more than 215,000 earlier in the day.
"The biggest issue is just the sheer magnitude of the storm that hit and the number of individual locations affected," said Jon Tremayne, a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. spokesman.
National Weather Service meteorologist Angus Barkhuff said some parts of Northern California would get a reprieve from the rain and snow on Monday. But in the mountains, "there's a chance of snow and snow showers all the way through Thursday," he said.
A major road through the Sierra Nevada was closed for several hours.
A 25-year-old woman died when she and her boyfriend unwittingly drove onto a flooded road in Chino, California. A 57-year-old public worker also died Friday after he was struck by a falling branch while clearing a road north of Sacramento, California.
Seven family members were hospitalized after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning from a propane lantern they brought inside their home outside Chico, California. A boy in the house woke up when he heard his sister collapse in the bathroom, Sgt. Jim Miranda of the Glenn County Sheriff's Department said. Several were unconscious or nauseous when they arrived at a hospital Saturday.
Utility officials warned against using gas-powered portable heating sources inside, saying it was extremely dangerous. A house fire Saturday in Sacramento was thought to be caused by candles being used to light the home during the power outage.
In the snowy Sierra foothills, workers trying to restore power were being forced to rely on snowshoes, all-terrain vehicles and helicopters to repair equipment in the most remote spots.
The irrigation canal failure at Fernley released a wave of frigid water into the town early Saturday. The canal was temporarily repaired by late in the day, but as much as a square mile of the town was still under water at least 2 feet deep Sunday as ice impeded drainage.
An initial assessment Sunday found 290 homes received varying amounts of flood damage, said Kim Toulouse, spokesman for the Nevada Division of Emergency Management. No injuries were reported in the town of 20,000 people about 30 miles east of Reno.
Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Sunday launched a preliminary damage assessment to determine whether a request for a presidential emergency declaration was justified.
Despite heavy rain Friday, Gov. Jim Gibbons said the canal was not full when the bank failed. "This indicates to me there might have been a structural weakness over the years. Nobody knows and we don't want to speculate at this time," he said.
One possible factor that officials have mentioned was rodents burrowing holes in the earthen bank, which also was involved in a smaller collapse that flooded about 60 Fernley homes in December 1996.
But Ernie Schank, president of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District, said Sunday that a geologist had turned up no evidence of burrowing animals near the site of the break. The cause may never be known, he said.
"It'll be hard to pinpoint the cause because the evidence is washed away," said Schank, whose agency operates the 31-mile-long earthen canal. E-mail to a friend
