Lady Luck Turns a Cold Shoulder to Reno

As storms swamped the Southland, this gambling mecca in the eastern shadow of the Sierra Nevada has endured an epic weather pattern of its own, a burst of snow that has prompted highway calamities, closed schools and caused roofs to cave in.

In the two weeks since storms started raking Nevada, Reno has seen 51 inches of snow. With more falling late Monday, the town that bill’s itself as “The Biggest Little City in the World” probably soon will have doubled its normal seasonal dusting of 29 inches.

All the snow left the downtown grid of streets between casinos awash in ice and slush, with snow banks piled up higher than an automobile in some spots.

Many side streets were still covered with thick layers of snow and ice as the city’s fleet of 18 snowplows and a cavalry of independent front-loader operators struggled to stay ahead of the snowfall.

In outlying neighborhoods that have stretched into the hills surrounding Reno, deep snow halted mail delivery, prompting grumbling and nasty letters in the local newspaper. Carport roofs collapsed. Downtown, flattop casinos strained under the weight of accumulated snow.

The load got so heavy on the roof of a Salvation Army warehouse that a huge slice of the structure caved in -- luckily, early on Sunday morning, when no one was working inside.

Reno-Tahoe International Airport was shut down for 12 hours over the weekend. So were several of the interstate highways leading over the Sierra Nevada. Chain controls ruled the roadways.

A Reno-bound Amtrak train got stuck over the weekend heading into the Sierra after a car derailed, and had to back down the grade to return the 220 passengers safely to Sacramento.

Reno Mayor Bob Cashell declared a state of emergency, saying storm-related costs could top $1 million and that the city needs help from the state and federal governments.

Even the little guy could see that.

“We’re not used to this,” maintenance worker Dennis Smith said as he shoveled snow from the sidewalk surrounding the Carriage House Inn. “The last few winters have been mild -- 3 or 4 inches at most each storm.”

Andrew Steen, a reservation agent at the Nugget casino and hotel, needed help from his father to dig out his buried car just to get to work. He was snowed in by the time his shift ended and spent the night in a vacant room at the hotel.

“My street has been pretty much impassible for about a week now,” said Steen, 36, a lifelong Reno resident. “Other than 1990, I can’t remember a time like this.”

Actually, weather watchers say, you’d have to go back to 1916 to find snowfall approaching what Reno is getting this winter. That year, 65 inches of snow fell in one month.

Folks at the National Weather Service in Reno have been amazed. “This is obviously a historic storm,” said meteorologist Jim Fischer.

Although he has no firm scientific fix on why Reno has been hit so hard, the bottom line is that the storms have parked over the Eastern Sierra instead of dumping most of their moisture on the west side. He said it appears to be a matter of the meteorological luck of the draw (this is Reno, after all).

In California, just up Interstate 80 in the Sierra, snowfall has been healthy but largely business as usual.

On Donner Summit, about 21 feet of snow has fallen so far this winter, leaving a pack of about 9 feet (that’s 175% above normal). But the biggest winter in the Sierra was the epic blow of 1937-38, when 68 feet of snow poured from the heavens.

“The real story,” said Randall Osterhuber, staff research associate at the Sierra Snow Lab on Donner Summit, “is over in Reno.”

There you could find Tom Freeman on Monday trying to free his 1970 Ford pickup on a steep uphill leading from the trailer park where he lives.

As the tires whirled to no avail, Freeman turned in a different direction: He recruited Dan Bringham and his Bobcat track loader. With a careful nudge or two, Bringham freed Freeman, who whizzed off with a wave of thanks.