RENO, Nev. (AP) - The Latest on severe weather at Lake Tahoe and across northern Nevada (all times local):
1:40 p.m.
Authorities in northeast Nevada are bracing for what they say could some of the worst flooding in more than 30 years.
Some low-lying streets in Elko have already flooded and U.S. Highway 93 remains closed all the way from Wells near Interstate 80 to the Idaho line at Jackpot.
Jeremy Michael, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Elko, told the Elko Daily Free Press on Friday (https://tinyurl.com/h5d9jqu ) the Humboldt River has risen higher than at any point since May 1984. The river is expected to exceed flood stage on Sunday. Michael says it could result in major damage to roads, structures and railroads, and potential loss of cattle in the flood plain.
The flood waters are being fueled by unusually warm temperatures that is speeding snow melt in the mountains. The high temperature reached a record 67 degrees in Winnemucca on Thursday, breaking the old mark of 65 set in 1963.
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1:10 p.m.
Authorities at Lake Tahoe are urging residents of a neighborhood on the lake’s north shore to stay inside their homes because of the threat of avalanches.
The North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District issued an avalanche alert Friday for a subdivision in Crystal Bay, Nevada on the California line.
The Sierra Avalanche Center rates the avalanche hazard there as “considerable.” It says large human-triggers avalanches are likely Friday due to gale force winds and heavy snow.
Nearly 3 feet of snow has fallen in the last 24 hours in the mountains above Lake Tahoe.
The fire district says Crystal Bay residents east of Tuscarora Road should avoid outdoor activity and shelter in place until further notice.
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12:50 p.m.
Emergency crews in Douglas County have rescued 10 people stranded by high waters near the Carson River south of Carson City.
Douglas County Sheriff’s Sgt. Bernadette Smith says they used an armored vehicle assigned to the SWAT team shortly before noon Friday to pick up the group that included several children.
She says a family called the dispatch center because they didn’t want to cross a large stretch of moving water near U.S. Highway 395 north of Minden.
The highway has been closed in both directions due to flooding.
An emergency shelter was set up at a community center in Gardnerville after voluntary evacuations at two local mobile home parks at about 3 a.m. Friday.
Smith says a half-dozen people showed up, but only two spent the night. They left Friday morning but the center remains open in case there’s more flooding.
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11:45 a.m.
Mudslides and rockslides have closed two major highways from Nevada to Lake Tahoe and are restricting travel on U.S. Interstate 80 over the top of the Sierra near Truckee, California.
The Nevada Department of Transportation says all westbound trucks are being stopped on I-80 at the state line west of Reno due to a mudslide. So far, passenger vehicles are being allowed to pass.
A mudslide closed the Kingsbury Grade from the Carson Valley to Tahoe Friday morning. The Mount Rose Highway from Reno to Tahoe also is closed, and U.S. Highway 50 remains shut down on the lake’s east shore near Cave Rock where several huge boulders have fallen in recent days.
In northeast Nevada, U.S. Highway 93 remains closed due to flooding from the Idaho line south to Wells along I-80.
Also in Elko County, State Route 233 is closed indefinitely from Montello to the Utah line after an earthen dam broke near there on Wednesday.
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Emergency crews have rescued three people from flood waters near the Truckee River in Reno as a winter storm continues to dump rain and snow along the Sierra’s eastern front.
KOLO-TV reports (https://tinyurl.com/jyua7kx) two of its reporters called 911 Friday morning when they heard a man shouting for help while holding onto a shed in a pasture on the east edge of Reno.
Rescue workers loaded the man and two others into boats and took one to a local hospital for treatment of possible hypothermia.
A winter storm warning remains in effect into Saturday at Lake Tahoe, where nearly 3 feet of snow fell in the upper elevations overnight.
A flood warning continues for most of western Nevada through Friday night, and through the weekend in northeast Nevada.
All schools were closed Friday in Washoe and Douglas counties.
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