Nevada floodwaters hit hundreds of homes

FERNLEY, Nev. — Hundreds of homes sat in as much as eight feet of water Sunday after a canal rupture as freezing temperatures hindered efforts to get the water to drain away.

Nearly 300 homes were damaged when the canal’s bank gave way after heavy rainfall produced by the West Coast storm system that piled snow at least 5 feet deep in the Sierra Nevada and blacked out thousands of customers in three states, including Washington. At least three deaths were blamed on the storm.

“In 10 minutes the entire back yard was completely flooded. It was just nothing but water,” said Kristin Watson, whose home backs up to part of the canal. “We just sort of panicked because we knew we had to get out of there real quick.”

The irrigation canal ruptured at Fernley early Saturday and was 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 kept the water from draining naturally. Lyon County Fire Division Chief Scott Huntley estimated 1,500 people had been displaced.

Winter storm warnings remained in effect for some mountainous areas from California to Colorado. Residents were warned of possible mudslides in parts of rain-soaked Southern California where slopes had been denuded by the fall’s wildfires.

At least 5 feet of snow had fallen on ski areas in the rugged Sierra Nevada by early Sunday, with 9 feet possible at some higher elevations, the National Weather Service said. As much as 3 feet more could hit the area by Tuesday evening, the weather service said.

More than 220,000 homes and businesses in Northern California were still without power Sunday, and Pacific Gas and Electric said the storm had downed nearly 500 miles of power lines and more than 500 utility poles throughout the Central Valley and the San Francisco Bay area. Repair crews in the snow-covered Sierra foothills will have to use snowshoes, all-terrain vehicles and helicopters, utility officials said.