Storm wreaks havoc on Carson City roadways

Slick roads and low visibility Thursday kept Carson City deputies and state troopers busy responding to more than a dozen minor accidents throughout the area.

The snowstorm, which blew in about lunchtime, quickly accumulated on the roads, causing headaches for commuters.

For Linda Soule and Chris Moses, of Douglas County, the icy roads could have been deadly.

"I thought we were going to pull a Thelma and Louise," said Moses, standing outside Soule's Toyota SUV where it rested 10 feet from the edge of a 30-foot ravine off Timberline Drive.

At 3 p.m. the two were heading east on the road after delivering food to a sick friend, when Soule lost control in a slight turn at the top, said Moses. Her vehicle slid off the road and traveled about 200 feet, making a beeline to the edge of the ravine, before a boulder diverted their path, said Moses.

"I had my hand on the (door) handle and I said, 'Pull off your seatbelt and get ready to jump,'" said Moses.

At about the same time, the Nevada Highway Patrol reported at least a half dozen spinouts on Lakeview Hill.

Deputies in Lyon were dealing with similar circumstances.

About 4:30 p.m. there were accidents on Highway 50 East and Rainbow Drive and an injury accident at 10 Mile Hill.

At 1:45 p.m. the California Highway Patrol closed part of Interstate 80 in the Sierra Nevada after about a dozen cars and trucks were involved in a wreck in the heavy snowstorm. No injuries were reported in the accident near Cisco Grove, Calif., about 22 miles west of Truckee, Calif.

CHP shut down the westbound lanes of the interstate between Truckee and the accident. The closure was expected to last through the night.

The series of winter storms that began moving in from the Pacific Ocean early this week has dumped more than 2 feet of snow in the upper elevations of the Sierra and several inches in the valleys.

Katherine LaBelle, National Weather Service meteorologist, said the snow should taper off about

4 a.m. this morning.

She said today is expected to be mostly cloudy with scattered snow showers and wind gusts of up to 35 mph.

"It will be pretty breezy. The weekend looks partly cloudy and becoming mostly cloudy, but there's no precipitation. So we'll get a break," she said.

• The Associated Press contributed to this report.