Death Toll Climbs as western US lashed by snow, rain: officials
Pastor Dale Morgan
Death Toll Climbs as western US lashed by snow, rain: officials*
by Staff Writers
San Francisco (AFP) Jan 6, 2008
Heavy snow and rain pounded the western United States for a third day
Sunday as state officials confirmed two fatalities from the storms that
have pummeled the region.
California was drenched with up to 10 inches (25 cm) of rainfall in some
regions as mountain communities in the east of state and neighboring
Nevada were blanketed by nearly six feet (two meters) of snow in places,
National Weather Service figures showed.
Around 110,000 homes and businesses remained affected by power outages
across California, down from more than 800,000 on Friday when the worst
of a series of storms slammed into San Francisco and its surrounding areas.
A spokeswoman with the California Governor's Office of Emergency
Services said Sunday there had been two confirmed storm-related deaths.
A council worker in Yuba City north of Sacramento died after being hit
by a fallen tree while a woman drowned after being swept away by
floodwaters in San Bernardino County near Los Angeles, spokeswoman Jodi
Traversaro said.
Rescue and emergency services were now on alert for possible mudslides
in rugged regions devastated by last year's California wildfires, she added.
"What we are really concerned about are the areas affected by the
wildfires. The ground has been absolutely saturated and it's not going
to take a lot for debris flows or mudslides to occur," Traversaro told AFP.
"We are on heightened alert in those regions."
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had declared a state of
emergency in three counties to help combat storm-affected areas.
The Governors of Nevada and Oregon also declared states of emergency in
regions including a town flooded by three feet of freezing cold water
when a levee burst early Saturday.
Investigators in Fernley, Nevada, east of Reno, were continuing to probe
the cause of the levee breach on Sunday, with local media reporting that
burrowing rodents may have been to blame.
Around 3,500 residents were evacuated from some 800 homes to an
emergency shelter following the incident early Saturday according to
Nevada state police.