Water freezes in flooded town

2008-01-07 16:23

Martin Griffith

Nevada - Hundreds of homes sat in as much as 2.5m of water 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 three metres 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 800km of power lines, utility officials said on Sunday.

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

Six snowmobiles 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 on Saturday. The canal was temporarily repaired by late in the day, but as much as 2.5 square kilometres of the town was still under water at least a half-metre deep on 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 on Sunday morning.

"But we still have up to eight 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 50km east of Reno.

- AP