Nasty Storms Still Snarling West

A levee broke east of Reno today, flooding hundreds of homes and leaving roughly 3,500 stranded as winter storms continue to batter the West Coast, the AP reports. Water was 3 to 4 feet deep in the desert town of Fernley, Nev., after the levee failure, while in the Sierra Nevada, up to 44 inches of snow had fallen. About 440,000 are still without power, down from 1.5 million yesterday.

The levee broke along the Truckee Canal in Fernley, sending frigid water rushing into town. No injuries have been reported. In Southern California, meanwhile, thousands have been told to evacuate ahead of feared mudslides, but so far few seem to have obeyed. In the Sierra Nevada, the Red Cross set up two shelters for stranded motorists; one meteorologist predicted “hazardous, if not impossible” road conditions. (More California stories.)