By Susan D. Gould
senior staff writer
(in photo at right: High waters overtake
Sparks Blvd. and Interstate 80 in Reno, Nev.)
Rains that produced flooding as well as mudslides plagued Idaho and Nevada, where the town of Cascade, Idaho was isolated for several days and Washoe County, Nev. officials scrambled to save vital records.
Since Valley County, Idaho is situated at about 5,000 feet above sea level, residents had to contend with more mudslides than flooding.
The county seat of Cascade was essentially landlocked after the only route into town, Route 55, was cut off for a week by a mudslide. Our biggest problem has been "the lack of egress and ingress," observed County Clerk Leland Heinrich, who said that food and milk had to be flown in. "We still have one-way, limited access" on that road.
Never during his 53 years in the county has Heinrich seen anything like this. What impresses him the most is "the inability to get out and get supplies."
About 4,000 tourists on holiday at local ski resorts were stranded along with residents. "It was like business as usual" for the natives, he said, but tourists "panicked" by overstocking on groceries and filling gas tanks without anywhere to go.
The area was prime for flooding since over 10 inches of rain was dumped throughout December, an abnormally high amount for that time of year. The heaviest rain, however, started on New Year's Eve, Heinrich recalled, dropping more than three inches in two days. The unusual warmth of the storm pushed temperatures up into the 40s, causing mountain snows to melt as well.
Although Heinrich's family didn't encounter flooding conditions in their home, they were without electricity on several occasions. Christmas dinner consisted of turkey only, he said. "It finished cooking just before the electricity shut off." On New Year's Day, the family had sandwiches with soup prepared over a camping stove.
Tragically, Heinrich's niece was one of five victims who died in a crash involving a plane ferrying area residents to safer ground.
The county got away with "very little structural damage," he said, and private property was minimally affected. Some of the timber access roads owned by the U.S. Forest Service experienced "some severe damage," however. (Over 90 percent of the county is federal land.) "Valley County is going to survive this very well," he noted.
Heinrich predicted that normalcy wouldn't return until after the spring thaw four to five months from now. Passage on Highway 55 is expected to be limited until that time. Many officials agree that "this is a practice for what will happen in the spring," he said.
Nearly 2,000 acres were submerged by the overflowing Truckee River in Washoe County, according to Press Clewe, the county's emergency management administrator, forcing the evacuation of 3,560 residents.
The river is still at very high levels, but below flood stage, he observed. Like California, it was the uniquely warm temperatures accompanying the storm that melted snow in the mountains and foothills that made this flood so disastrous.
Estimated damage to private property in the county is around $33 million; county officials are still surveying public damage and haven't put a price tag on it. Some of Reno's casinos had to close their doors to gamblers for fear of flooding. Altogether, 21 commercial structures in the city were damaged, translating into $139 million worth of damage.
Even the newly built county courthouse couldn't escape the water. County
documents and records were in danger, Clewe explained, but "we were
able to save them to the old courthouse [next door]."