9 missing in Western snowstorms

Eric Cornett fled from his home with his wife and three children.

"We saw water coming in the back door and tried to grab as much stuff as possible to save it. The water was rising very quickly and it was scary," he said.

Two helicopters aided boat crews in rescuing at least 18 people from driveways and roofs.

Rodents behind levee break?
One possible factor that officials have mentioned was rodents burrowing holes in the earthen bank, which also was involved in a smaller collapse that flooded about 60 Fernley homes in December 1996.

But Ernie Schank, president of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District, said Sunday that a geologist had turned up no evidence of burrowing animals near the site of the break. The cause may never be known, he said.

“It’ll be hard to pinpoint the cause because the evidence is washed away,” said Schank, whose agency operates the 31-mile-long earthen canal.

Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons declared the county an emergency area and the Federal Emergency Management Agency planned to survey the damage Monday.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared emergencies in three counties hit hard by the storms, and Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski declared a state of emergency for one county that had severe wind damage.

At least 5 feet of snow had fallen on ski areas in the rugged Sierra Nevada by early Sunday, with 9 feet possible at some higher elevations, the National Weather Service said.

The Kirkwood ski resort near Lake Tahoe reported about 11 feet of snow had fallen since the storm system moved inland from the Pacific last week.

3 more feet of snow by Tuesday?
As much as 3 feet more snow could hit higher elevations of the Sierras by Tuesday evening, the National Weather Service said. Parts of Northern California will get a reprieve from the rain and snow on Monday, but in the mountains, “there’s a chance of snow and snow showers all the way through Thursday,” said weather service meteorologist Angus Barkhuff.

Blizzard conditions in the mountains during the night prompted authorities to again close nearly 100 miles of Interstate 80 from about 30 miles east of Sacramento to just over the Nevada state line, but the California Department of Transportation's Web site later said it was open to vehicles with chains or with a combination of 4-wheel-drive and snow tires.

I-80 also was closed early Saturday because of the weather, and Saturday afternoon the weather was blamed for a 17-car pileup that closed westbound lanes just east of the Reno-Sparks area.

More than 234,000 homes and businesses in Northern California were still without power Sunday, and Pacific Gas and Electric said the storm had downed nearly 500 miles of power lines and more than 500 utility poles. Repair crews in the snow-covered Sierra foothills will have to use snowshoes, all-terrain vehicles and helicopters, utility officials said.

Fewer than 5,000 customers were still blacked out in the Los Angeles area. The storm also caused blackouts in parts of Oregon and Washington.

In all, more than 2 million customers from the northern town of Eureka to Los Angeles had lost power since early Friday.

Seven people were hospitalized at Willows, Calif., near Chico, after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning from a propane lantern they used indoors because of the blackout, Glenn County officials said.

The storm was blamed for two deaths in California, including a woman whose pickup truck was swept into a flood channel east of Los Angeles, and one death in Oregon, police said.

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