Blizzard Brings Avalanche Peril to Squaw Valley : 100 Homes Evacuated as Winds Whip Snow; Interstate 80 Closed

Winds gusting to 100 m.p.h. barreled from California’s High Sierra to the northern Rockies on Friday, whipping snow into road-plugging drifts and carrying blizzard conditions to Idaho and Montana. Record cold gripped parts of the Midwest.

Authorities fearing an avalanche ordered the evacuation of about 100 houses in California’s Squaw Valley ski resort after a blizzard dumped more than four feet of snow, closing Interstate 80 and U.S. 50 over the Sierra Nevada.

“We have strong winds blowing in a circular direction, just whipping the snow around where it looks like it’s snowing sideways,” said sheriff’s Sgt. Kent Hawthorne in Tahoe City, Calif., about 10 miles away.

‘Could Go at Any Time’

“There’s an extreme avalanche threat. It looks like it could go at any time,” said Placer County sheriff’s spokesman Jeff Liddle. Sheriff Donald Nunes said that he was unsure how many persons were evacuated, because many of the residences were vacation homes.

The area has received 52 inches of snow since Thursday, the National Weather Service said.

Highway crews reported up to 1 1/2 feet of new snow by midday on Rogers Pass in Montana. Officials in the Gallatin National Forest advised against people using the area because of avalanche danger.

The weather service described conditions in southeastern Idaho, where a blizzard warning was posted for Friday night, as “almost chaotic.”

“There are slides, drifting snow and visibility is zero,” a spokesman for the Idaho Transportation Department said. The U.S. Forest Service issued an avalanche warning for the southeastern highlands, including the area south of Sun Valley, advising skiers and snowmobilers to stay out of the back country. The Sawtooth Recreation area north of Sun Valley received 26 inches of snow.

Interstate 15 from the Utah border to Pocatello, Ida., and Interstate 86 from Raft River, Ida., to Pocatello were closed.

The blizzard that swathed much of the Northwest on Thursday was blamed for two traffic deaths in Oregon, one in Washington and one in California.

Blizzard conditions made travel a hazard in Oregon, where three feet of snow fell at Santiam pass.

New Storm Coming

“The next storm is already visible on our satellite (photograph),” San Francisco weather service forecaster Dale Goudeau said. “Others are strung out over the horizon. The next one will hit Monday.”

The high winds driving the storms snapped power lines in many areas and closed U.S. 395 north of Reno as lines were strewn across the road. Residents in valleys north of Reno spent Friday morning without power.

Winds blustered to near 100 m.p.h. along the ridges of Park City, Utah, about 60 m.p.h. near Casper, Wyo., Livingston, Mont., Pocatello and Salt Lake City and 51 m.p.h. at San Francisco.

Icy cold spread across the Northeast on Friday, with temperatures dropping into the single digits and winds gusting to 35 m.p.h., creating windchills as low as 40 degrees below zero.

Readings were near or below zero from the Missouri Valley across the Great Lakes and the Ohio Valley. Rockford, Ill., had a record minus 20. Other records for the date were 5 degrees below at Evansville, Ind., 1 degree at Paducah, Ky., and 15 at Hunstville, Ala.