RENO, Nev. – A moisture-laden winter storm piled snow deeper across the Sierra Nevada, stranding an Amtrak train, knocking out the Reno airport and shutting down major highways across the mountains.
The storm was the latest in a string of powerful systems that has dumped as much as 19 feet of snow in the Sierra and 6½ feet in the Reno area since Dec. 28.
Forecasters called the series of storms the snowiest in the Reno-Lake Tahoe area since 1916.
"I've lived here for almost 40 years and I've never seen anything like it," Peter Walenta, 69, of Stateline, said Sunday. "This baby just seems to be stretching on forever. Right now I'm looking out the window and it's dumping."
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January 10, 2005 E-mail story Print
3 Killed as Unrelenting Storms Batter Southland
Flooding and mudslides close roads and damage houses. Rain is expected to last through Tuesday.
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'Choose your street with "Canyon" in the name, and that likely has been impacted by mud.'
-- Brian Humphrey, Los Angles Fire Department spokesman
By Jia-Rui Chong, Amanda Covarrubias and Richard Fausset, Times Staff Writers
A fourth day of thrashing thunderstorms began to take a heavier toll on Southern California on Sunday with at least three deaths blamed on the rain, as flooding and mudslides forced road closures and emergency crews carried out harrowing rescue operations.
In Elysian Park, a 42-year-old homeless man was killed and another injured when a mudslide swept away their makeshift encampment. Another man was killed on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu when his SUV skidded into a mud patch and plunged into the Pacific Ocean. Ventura County officials reported Sunday that a 20-year-old man died north of Ojai as he tried to cross a rain-gorged creek Saturday, wearing a harness attached to a wire.
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[This message has been edited by WendyForsyth (edited 01-09-2005).]