Tag: fernley

We're deep in the doldrums of summer now, as evidenced by the above picture. The snow has disappeared from even the darkest crevasses of Job's Peak, meaning that our snowpack is all but gone. This leads to the rivers drying up to little more than a trickle, and the water situation becoming more dire. Already this is causing problems to the east, with Lake Lahontan drying up to the point where it's no longer safe for boaters, and only supplying Fallon farmers with a fraction of what they usually get. Adding to the problem is the levee break that occurred in Fernley last January. The levee broke along the Truckee-Carson canal, which was built to take water from the Truckee River and send it to the Carson River and Fallon. The levee has been mostly fixed, but water flows are still restricted and will be for the foreseeable future. So the Carson River is extra low this year, the canal is running at a trickle, the lake is really low, and the farmers are looking at a short season because the water just isn't there. I'd say we could use some rain right about now. At least the fire in Yosemite is under control now, so the smoke is gone. One small consolation.

A new site has been set up, Hello Fernley, for communication and information sharing among all the people affected by the Fernley flood. The waters have mostly receded, but the hard work is just starting as people try to put their lives back together. Many of them without flood insurance, because they didn't even know they lived in an area that needed flood insurance.

Also Fernley News is a local site that has a lot of coverage.

The local newspapers have been doing better coverage than I ever could on the flood and the aftermath. Check out the Lahontan Valley News, the Reno Gazette-Journal, and the Nevada Appeal. Also look at the videos of the flood on YouTube (via the RGJ).

So we woke up this morning to the largest snowfall we've had in nearly a year. I measured a solid six inches in Carson City and the Carson Valley both. Some are reporting drifts of up to 12 inches in areas. So I'd call this a pretty successful storm. Plus, it's noon and we've had hardly any melting yet, so that's another out-of-the-ordinary occurrence for us. And another wave is supposed to be hitting tonight, bringing in possibly another six inches.

Of course all eyes are on Fernley this morning, where a levee broke along the Truckee-Carson Canal early this morning, sending three to six feet of water into the neighborhoods in southern Fernley. So that could mean that thousands of people might have to weather this next storm in a makeshift high school shelter instead of in their own homes.

The Nevada Appeal has a few flooding pictures here and here and here.