400K without power amid Calif. storm

SANTA ANA, Calif.-A levee break flooded hundreds of homes Saturday as the storm that has pummeled the West Coast with high wind and heavy rain dropped a thick blanket of snow on the Sierra Nevada on Saturday.Thousands of people had no power in three states and thousands more had been told to leave their homes in mudslide-prone areas of Southern California.Up to 44 inches of snow had fallen in some parts of the Sierra Nevada, the National Weather Service said Saturday morning. Forecasters expected the storm to dump as much as 10 feet at higher elevations of the mountain range by Sunday.East of the Sierra in Nevada's Lyon County, a levee broke early Saturday along an agricultural canal, releasing water as much as 3 feet deep into the town of Fernley and stranding about 3,500 people, authorities said. Rescuers were using school buses, boats and helicopters.No injuries were reported.The Fernley area had gotten heavy rain on Friday plus snow."It was a mess up there last night," said Chuck Allen of the Nevada Department of Public Safety. "It's so cold here. The snow is about 2 inches in depth and the temperatures are right near the frigid mark both for the rescuers and rescuees."Flights were grounded Friday and trucks overturned in Northern California as wind gusted to 80 mph during the second wave of the arctic storm that has sent trees crashing onto houses, cars and roads. Hundreds of thousands of customers lost power from central California into Oregon and Washington.In the south, residents of Orange County canyons that were stripped by wildfires last fall-making them susceptible to mudslides-nervously watched weather reports to learn when they might be hit by the fierce wind and heavy downpours forecast for the area."There's a little bit of a letup right now in the rain, but there's still a huge band of rain that's going to come in today," Ted MacKechnie, a National Weather Service forecaster, said Saturday morning. About 3,000 people in four canyons had been told to leave their homes by 7 p.m. Friday, Orange County fire Capt. Mike Blawn said.
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