Publication Date April 13, 2017 | Reno Gazette Journal

Nevada prepares for potential Katrina-style spring flooding

United States
Governor Brian Sandoval, middle, listens to Brigadier General William Burks of the Nevada National Guard, right, speak during a briefing on possible spring flooding at the Old Assembly Chambers in the Nevada State Capital Building in Carson City on April 13, 2017. (Photo: Jason Bean, Reno Gazette Journal, USA Today Network
Governor Brian Sandoval, middle, listens to Brigadier General William Burks of the Nevada National Guard, right, speak during a briefing on possible spring flooding at the Old Assembly Chambers in the Nevada State Capital Building in Carson City on April 13, 2017. (Photo: Jason Bean, Reno Gazette Journal, USA Today Network

Article excerpt

Sierra snowpack will send nearly 500 billion gallons into swollen Walker and Carson rivers

Nevada could see weeks of Katrina-style flooding when warm spring and summer sunshine melts the massive snowpack blanketing the Sierra Nevada.

That’s according to the Nevada National Guard and other emergency planners and responders who briefed Gov. Brian Sandoval on potential disaster scenarios.

“Typically, Nevada experiences flash flooding,” Col. Cory Schulz told Sandoval, referencing hurricane flooding in 2005 that devastated New Orleans and southern Mississippi. “This will be saturation flooding, much like Katrina.”

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Nearly three months later the Sierra snowpack has grown to record levels in some places and communities in the Carson and Walker river basins are at risk. The melting rate is expected to quicken as the weather warms in May and rivers could be at high levels deep into summer.

Three counties, Churchill, Lyon and Douglas, have declared emergencies in advance of the coming snowmelt and more could join that group, Sandoval said.

“Obviously, we are in the midst of … one of the three greatest water events in the history of Nevada,” Sandoval said. “We could get a warm rainstorm and it might get down faster than we would like.”