8/28/2023 0 Comments South lake tahoe fire hazmatOn Wednesday, President Joe Biden issued a federal emergency declaration and ordered federal assistance to supplement state and local resources for firefighting efforts and relief for residents in four counties affected by the fire. And within a couple hours, the police came and picked me up in my apartment and brought me here," he said, wearing ski goggles to protect his eyes from the blowing ash. "I called 911 and told them I need to get out of here - I have no food, no cigarettes and I'm disabled. But he went to the 7-11 down the street in Stateline and saw even stores there had closed. Kevin O'Connell, a disabled plumber from South Lake Tahoe, planned on staying and riding out the evacuation order. Thick smoke has enveloped the city of South Lake Tahoe, which is all but deserted at a time when it would normally be swarming with tourists.Īfter casinos and stores closed on the Nevada side on Wednesday morning, evacuation holdouts lacking cars lined up outside the Montbleu resort and casino in Stateline, awaiting a bus to Reno. One spur of the fire was roughly 3 miles (5 kilometers) south of the recently evacuated city of South Lake Tahoe, moving northeast toward the California-Nevada state line, authorities said.Ĭrews worked to keep flames away from urban communities, where houses are close together and shopping centers, hotels and other structures would provide even more fuel. The resort also brought out its big guns - snow-making devices that were being used to hose down buildings. Heavenly Mountain Resort, Tahoe's largest ski area, was being used as a staging area by firefighters. On Wednesday, firefighters were ferried by boat to protect cabins at Echo Lake, a few miles south of Tahoe. The Caldor Fire threatened at least 33,000 more homes and structures. 14.Ĭlimate change has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent, destructive and unpredictable, scientists say. "We're battling what we can battle and waiting for those winds to subside," said Stephen Vollmer, a fire behavior analyst for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.Įven so, the forecast made fire officials cautiously optimistic.įire crews from around the country were being thrown into the fight against the fire, which was just 23% contained after destroying at least 700 homes and other buildings since breaking out Aug. The blaze was also throwing sparks that caught trees and created spot fires up to a mile ahead of the main wall of flames. The winds were expected to calm heading into the weekend, although the humidity remained low and the eastern side of the vast wildfire was still burning trees and running through explosively dry grasslands into rugged areas hard for firefighters to reach, authorities said. Three days of fiercely gusting winds had driven the Caldor Fire east through the rugged Sierra Nevada, forcing tens of thousands of people from the region of forests, mountain hamlets, resorts and alpine lakes. With winds finally turning in their favor, firefighters are throwing all their resources into boxing a California blaze that was scant miles from Lake Tahoe and neighboring Nevada. Chains were required on much of the rest of I-80 and other routes in the mountains from Reno toward Sacramento.Firefighters put out hot spots on Wednesday near South Lake Tahoe, Calif. Interstate 80 was closed Saturday “due to zero visibility” from the northern California town of Colfax to the Nevada state line, transportation officials said. The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab in Soda Springs, California reported Sunday morning that more than 43 inches (110 cm) had fallen in a 48-hour span.Ī 70-mile (112-km) stretch of eastbound U.S. To the south, Mammoth Mountain reported that more than 20 inches (51 cm) of snow fell Saturday, with another 2 feet (.6 meters) possible as the tail end of the system moved through the eastern Sierra. The resort posted video of lift chairs swaying violently because of gusts that topped 100 mph (161 kph), along with a tweeted reminder that wind closures are “always for your safety.” The Heavenly ski resort at Lake Tahoe shut down some operations when the brunt of the storm hit Saturday. ![]() Heavy snow fell in the Sierra Nevada while downpours at lower elevations triggered flood watches Sunday across large swaths of California into Nevada.
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