We now on day four of this major winter storm,
blizzard conditions impacting much of the Sierra.
Good evening.
I'm Alicia Machado and I'm Luke Clary,
a minor avalanche swallowed cars this morning,
shutting down highway 50 for some time
and again, thank you for joining us for the news at six.
We want to take a look at this video posted by CAL
trans from that small avalanche this morning. This all happening near Echo Summit.
It shows crews pulling one of the several cars trapped along highway 50
the highway was closed only for about 30 minutes.
Cal Tran says the crew worked very quickly to Rio
thankfully, no one was hurt and we have team coverage tonight.
Jeannie Nguyen is reporting along highway 50 with conditions there and our chief,
neurologist Monica Woods standing by tracking those blizzard conditions.
We'll get to her in just a few minutes.
But first, we want to start with Devin Truby who's in truckee right now.
Low tow truck drivers are working around the clock there in
12 hour shifts to clear more than 100 cars stuck on interstate 80
some tow companies are saying that
they pulled out that they're estimating that they will pull
out 200 cars when all is said and done.
We join Devin to
be now in Trucky Devin, you've been there since Thursday.
Talk to us about what conditions are looking like now.
Well,
we should clean up.
Crews are having to deal with this constant snowfall,
working 24 7 as the day progresses and it starts to turn to nightfall.
Visibility only gets lower.
So this is how crews have been cleaning up in our state 80.
It's wall to wall semi trucks on both sides of interstate 80.
This 360 view from driver Mike Ram,
one of the many tow truck drivers making trips from 80 to trucky since Thursday.
We're
estimating probably a little over 200 that were stuck just the other day,
Ram
will be joining nine other North Valley fleet
drivers on interstate 80 pulling cars Sunday,
Ram pulled out seven cars before 10 a.m.
We either chain them up so they can get out of the
storm so they can either head to Reno or head back down the hill to Sacramento
and fellow drivers pulling out semis like this one hooked up to the back of the truck.
Sometimes it taking two tow trucks to right this semi
that was tipped on its side.
Other times, the flat beds of trucks are filled,
not with cars but car parts like this.
There's a lot of people in a lot of cars some of them were there overnight.
Some of them got rescued and sent to the hospital or to the nearest hotel.
If there's no driver in the car, when the tow arrives, the car is impounded.
Ram walking us to a nearly full impound lot. You all the way to here are all abandoned.
These are mostly just miss semi truck wrecks.
Ramm says majority of calls are for spin outs. People going too fast.
The other common issue people in four wheel drive vehicles, but on city tires,
they're usually happy that we're there to basically get them out of it.
They're not
happy when they get the bill, however, they are happy that they got out of it.
The storm crews are working in taking hold of the town of truckee this weekend.
Just look at this progression of accumulation on the patio furniture.
Day one Friday, day two Saturday
and now day three Sunday using the second story window for reference,
it's about 6 ft of snow stan. Star thought it would be a great family ski weekend.
But sadly,
it didn't turn out that way. Now, he just hopes his daughter can get home on 50.
She's gonna wait for the storm to break.
She would like to get home today, but it's less likely.
Starr is former ski patrol for 31 years in Oregon.
He says he's seen his fair share of storms.
But this one, you know, I'd say this is a once in a year storm.
But, you know, it could be once in three years.
You know, I mean, it's a pretty big storm.
We reached out to the local hospital to see if they're getting many patients off.
Interstate 80 due to crashes and spin out the Tahoe Forest
Health System tells us that
it's unusually quiet this weekend without their
normal injuries from skiers and snowboarders.
So, nothing significant to report on that front. Luke Alicia.
All right. Well, that's some good news there from Truckee CHP.
Truckie telling us that
they had no estimated time for reopening I 80
we've since reached out for an update. We haven't heard back. All right.
Thank you, Devin. Our Devin Truby reporting live for us tonight from Truckee
and this blizzard closing many of the lake
ski areas this weekend
and resorts around the state as well. Take a look here.
This is that Palisades Tahoe Ski resort and although
a lot of snow is generally welcomed by ski
resorts with all the wind and feet of snow
is just too dangerous for skiing in these conditions.
And Nevada County closed voting centers in truck around two pm today.
They said that this was three hours earlier than the scheduled time.
The Truckie Grocery Outlet has a ballot drop box and they are closing at eight pm.
Let's get things over now to the chief meteorologist Monica Woods.
This storm, not quite over yet. No. Over the weekend we had winds over 150
MPH in some parts of this year tonight, you can see the region wide perspective here.
This is a long I 80 so does springs very quiet with the road closure there.
And you can see how many trucks are lined up at Applegate
along I 80 down the hill at Myers.
It is slow going the really bad visibility there down the hill there.
We do have smoother travel although snow has piled up near Camino as far as our
storm totals about 5 to 8 ft of Sierra snow still accumulating by the way.
Valley rain closer to about a half an inch to an inch.
And we knew this wasn't going to be a huge storm for the valley,
but we're still tracking areas of showers roughly from about
Sacramento through Elk Grove and then Folsom Loomis Rose.
We're already seeing showers as well as the back
edge continues to move its way through Grass Valley.
It is rain.
I know we've seen some higher elevations in Grass Valley, seeing snow,
periodically rain continuing to fall through the northern
San Joaquin Valley and through the mother load
higher up though it's snow and that extends all the way through the 8050 corridor.
The storm though is starting to move its way eastward.
So tonight, we will start to see lessening impacts.
Blizzard warning goes through midnight midnight, north of 80.
It's that winter storm.
Uh Winter weather advisory, I should say until 10 o'clock tonight,
avalanche warning continues through Mammoth Lakes
along 395 until early tomorrow morning.
And on the heels of this, we get right back at it.
Winter storm warning going into effect starting tomorrow.
Our continuing until 4 a.m. on Wednesday again, a brief break for tonight.
But as we move our way through our Monday,
we're right back at it as another storm starts its approach
the northern California, we'll check back in with you soon. Thank you, Monica
and take a look at this. The other side of Tahoe Highway 50.
You could see the ground there is still covered in snow.
Many still taking to the roads but slow traffic heading toward Myers.
Our weather coverage continues tonight in Placerville as residents
are digging themselves out from the snow today and
Jen is live with a look at conditions right now, Jeanie,
how are people coping with this storm?
And
Alicia, as you can see, it's coming down here in Placerville. It is just rained but
a little bit further up on highway 50 in Pollock
Pines. That's where people,
some of them we spoke with were having fun in
the snow while others were finally emerging from their homes.
After this weekend's storm,
I'm retired so I go out and take my time and shovel them below and
take care of business as a P
Pines resident for the past 15 years.
This type of snow is nothing unusual for Alan Wilhelm,
but he was prepared. He says he got about a foot of snow in his neighborhood.
I'm always getting everything ready to go.
I've got a little generator on my back deck and,
you know, underneath the cover and I get stuff ready to go.
And while he's used to this weather, he did not take any chances with his safety.
When I hear those closures, I pretty much stay off the highway
warnings from Caltrans and the
CHP others hit the road looking for adventure.
That's why I got this car, a Subaru, you know, all wheel drive and snow tires on it.
I mean, I love going to the snow.
This storm brought in just enough snow in Pollock Pines for some family fun.
The snowfall like it's a good amount for the kids to play in.
It's not too much, not too little.
And as the storm tapers off, Wilhelm says he's grateful for the extra moisture.
This really has not been that big of a storm
and of course,
there are certain parts on highway 50 right now that do require chains to be updated.
We have put that information on our website at abc.com
and Jie officials say there are traffic delays if you're
heading out to Tahoe highway 50 still backed up.
So it's not recommended to travel. All Jie N reporting for us live in Plaster
Jeanie. Thank you.
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