Freeze keeps flood from receding

FERNLEY, Nev. – Hundreds of homes sat in as much as 8 feet of water Sunday following a canal rupture as freezing weather spread sheets of ice over yards and streets, hindering efforts to get the water to drain away.

Nearly 300 homes were damaged when the canal’s bank gave way following heavy rainfall produced by the West Coast storm system that had piled snow as much as 11 feet deep in the Sierra Nevada.

Thousands of customers were blacked out across the West and many of them in California could remain in the dark for days because the storm ripped down nearly 500 miles of power lines, utility officials said Sunday.

More than 215,000 people remained without power in Northern California alone.

Six snowmobilers and two skiers were reported missing in heavy snow in the mountains of southern Colorado, and one hiker was missing in snow-covered mountains in Southern California.

At least three deaths were blamed on the storm.

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.

“Our hope is over the next 24 hours to get the water out,” Fernley Mayor Todd Cutler said at a briefing Sunday morning. “But we still have up to 8 feet of water in some areas. We need to keep the storm drains unclogged to keep the water moving to a wetland. We also may need to do some pumping in some areas.”

Lyon County Fire Division Chief Scott Huntley estimated 1,500 people had been displaced. No injuries were reported in the town of 20,000 people about 30 miles east of Reno.

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.

Rescuers in Colorado resumed a search Sunday for six snowmobilers last seen Friday, before the storm dumped 3 to 4 feet of snow near Cumbres Pass, close to the New Mexico line.

Two skiers were missing 40 miles away in the Wolf Creek ski area, Donna Oney of the Colorado State Patrol said. Wolf Creek had reported 39 inches of snow overnight.

In the mountains east of Los Angeles, authorities searched Sunday for a 62-year-old man who went hiking Friday just before the storm began, San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokeswoman Arden Wiltshire said. Searchers last had cell phone contact with him early Saturday, before snow began falling in the area.

As much as 3 feet more snow could hit higher elevations of the Sierras by Tuesday evening, the National Weather Service said.