California Getting Blasted By Storm Heading SE of us

Destructive storm sweeps through California
By SAMANTHA YOUNG Associated Press Writer
Article Launched: 01/04/2008 02:40:28 PM PST


SACRAMENTO?-Gale-force winds and pelting rain pummeled Northern California Friday, toppling trees, flipping big rigs and cutting power to hundreds of thousands of people.
Flights were grounded at area airports as some gusts reached 80 mph during the second wave of an arctic storm that sent trees crashing on to houses, cars and roads. Forecasters expected the storm to dump up to 10 feet of snow in the Sierra by Sunday.

Authorities said the heavy snow was slowing search efforts for a Clovis family believed to be missing in the mountains.

Highways from the Sacramento area to the San Francisco Bay Area were closed because of debris or toppled big rigs blocking lanes and local roads were flooded.

"A huge tree, over 100 years old, just fell across the house. It just wrecked the whole thing," said Faye Reed, whose daughter Teenia owns the damaged Roseville home north of Sacramento. "They won't be able to live in it. The whole ceiling fell in, and now it's raining inside."

More than half a million people from the Bay Area to the Central Valley were left without electricity. Crews were working to restore power, but it could be days before all the lights are on, Pacific Gas & Electric spokeswoman Darlene Chiu said.

In Southern California, authorities in Orange County issued a voluntary evacuation order for residents of fire-scarred Modjeska and Silverado canyons, and Williams Canyon, beginning Friday afternoon. The order also called for the mandatory evacuation of large animals from the mudslide-prone canyons, where 15 homes burned last fall in a 28,000-acre wildfire.
"It's too late once the rain starts. These areas are extremely vulnerable. You're risking your life and your family's life fundamentally" by ignoring orders, said Steve Sellers, the regional administrator for the southern region of the governor's Office of Emergency Services.

Riverside and San Bernardino counties have deployed swift-water rescue teams in case torrential rains bring flash floods and mudslides. The state opened its emergency operations center Friday morning to coordinate storm response, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzengger said he had spoken with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff by phone.

"Preparation is really the heart of this whole thing," Schwarzenegger said after touring the state emergency operation center at the Los Alamitos Joint Training Base.

Homeowners in Southern California stacked sandbags and hay bales around their homes while residents in the low-lying areas of the Central Valley piled sandbags to barricade their homes from streams and creeks that forecasters warned might swell.

Yosemite National Park rangers and sheriff's deputies were combing the Sierra foothills and mountain snow camps Friday afternoon searching for a missing Clovis man and his two children, said Clovis police spokeswoman Janet Stoll-Lee.

John Hopper, 64, a volunteer chaplain with the Clovis police, left town Thursday morning with his 15-year-old twins Matt and Sarah to "go play in the snow," Stoll-Lee said.

The family didn't give any indication of where they were heading, and law enforcement officials only heard they were missing when Hopper's ex-wife reported they hadn't returned late Thursday night, she said.

"We're pretty concerned because there isn't that much time until darkness is going to fall and we've got this bad storm headed our way," Stoll-Lee said. "Even knowing the county where they were heading would have been helpful."

Travelers saw their flight plans put on hold when airlines delayed or canceled flights in Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Shirley Borba and her family were stranded in the Sacramento Airport when their 7:30 am flight was canceled. Borba was hoping to get to Ontario to prepare for her father's 80th surprise party Saturday.

"Half the family's coming now, the other will be on a flight at 8:30," she said. Then she reconsidered. "Well, we might be on with them."

Ferry service in the San Francisco Bay was interrupted, as well.

The winds were expected to continue throughout the afternoon, with sustained gusts between 30 and 50 mph. The winds are expected to weaken as the third storm moves into the area Saturday, said Kathy Hoxsie, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento.

As the storm continues to move east into the Sierras, forecasters hope the temperature will drop enough so that the precipitation falls as snow.

"The real problem could be we get a glaze of ice when the freezing level comes back down. That's going to be the concern tonight," Hoxsie said.

Authorities in Nevada warned truckers as far east as Evanston, Wyo., not to cross over the Sierra Nevada into California where blizzard-like conditions forced ski resorts and local businesses to shut down.

"State officials have been working closely with trucking companies and truck stops to let them know, 'Stay put,'" said Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Chuck Allen.

Heavenly Mountain Resort at South Lake Tahoe, Alpine Meadows Ski Area in Tahoe City, Mt. Rose Ski Resort near Reno and Badger Pass Ski Area in Yosemite National Park shut down for the day.

"To actually watch the topography of the mountain change right before your eyes is very exciting," said Rachel Woods, a spokeswoman for Alpine Meadows who said the ski resort was getting an inch of snow an hour Friday morning.