Spring storm hits hard

Winds gusting more than 100 mph downed power lines in Northern Nevada on Tuesday, causing outages for thousands of residents in Reno and Douglas County, although leaving Carson City relatively unscathed.

The storm also wreaked havoc with travel as it dumped snow and rain on the Sierra.

While Carson City experienced only minor outages that affected a handful of customers Tuesday morning, winds knocked power out to half of Carson Valley's schools, several businesses and thousands of homes.

Winds hit 81 mph five miles southwest of Gardnerville in Sheridan Acres at 6:19 a.m.

More than 7,400 NV Energy customers were without power most of the day after problems at two substations serving Minden and the Gardnerville Ranchos, according to NV Energy Spokesman Karl Walquist.

Douglas High School students were in the dark until just before

10 a.m. Teachers conducted classes in the hallways at Meneley Elemen-tary, and Pau-Wa-Lu Middle School and Scarselli Elementary also were without power much of the morning.

The California Highway Patrol closed part of westbound Interstate 80 north of Lake Tahoe after wind flipped a truck on its side and snow began to fall.

As much as a foot of snow was expected in the upper elevations by this morning, with rain in the valleys.

About 5,000 homes and businesses were without power in Reno, where the wind ripped shingles off roofs, toppled fences, blew a school bus door off its hinges and uprooted hundreds of trees.

More than a dozen flights were canceled at Reno-Tahoe International Airport, where sustained winds up to 63 mph were reported. Winds gusted to 107 mph on U.S. Highway 395 south of Reno and topped 125 mph early Tuesday at the Mount Rose Ski Resort, the National Weather Service said.

Gusts in excess of 40 mph also were reported 400 miles further south in Las Vegas, where Clark County air quality officials issued a dust advisory through Wednesday morning out of concern the air could become dangerous for children, the elderly and people with respiratory diseases.