Sacramento Area Local News

SACRAMENTO (CBS13/AP) ― As the wind and rain continue to fall, the problems pile up.  Thousands of people are without power, roads are littered with accidents and fears of mudslides grow as the day goes on.

Caltrans are warning motorists to be cautious driving on northern California roadways during this afternoon commute.  Crews are in the field clearing drains and posting warning signs where needed, but conditions are changing rapidly. Caltrans is urging people to delay trips when possible and drive very carefully if they are on the roads.

Statewide road information is available at 1-800-427-7623.

 Power outages forced five schools in the Twin Rivers Unified School District to shutdown for the day. Rio Linda High School, Rio Linda Junior, Rio Linda Elementary, Westside Elementary and Martin Luther King Junior sent students home. Students were allowed to stay on the two elementary campuses until a family member could pick them up or buses took them home at the normal release time.

SMUD and PG&E are reporting numerous outages with thousands of people without power all over Northern California. SMUD officials say 90,000  of their customers in total are without power all across the Sacramento area.

PG&E is reporting the following outages in the Central Valley:

• Yolo County: 6,000 customers.
• Stanislaus County: 1,500 customers.
• Placer County: 3,500 customers.
• El Dorado County: 5,000 customers.
• San Joaquin County: 28,500 customers

Cal ISO has issued a transmission emergency and is asking residents to conserve power until 10:00 PM. A downed 500 kilovolt power line has dramatically reduced the supply of electricity. Cal ISO spokesperson Stephanie McCorkle said high winds brought down the high voltage power line earlier Tuesday. The incident is limiting the flow of electricity between northern and southern California, but officials are not anticipating blackouts -- conservation will give power operators "wiggle room" to keep the power grid stable, McCorkle said.

 Current SMUD Power Outages
 Current PG&E Outages
 Roseville Electric Contact Info

Emergency crews are heading to Grant Line Road and Sloughhouse Road just east of Elk Grove to deal with reports of people possibly trapped by the fallen power lines.

Drivers were fording their way through the "boat section" of Interstate 5 in downtown Sacramento after heavy flooding brought traffic to a near halt. Clogged drains kept large amounts of water on the roadway, making conditions difficult for rush hour traffic. Crews unclogged the pumps and had traffic flowing normally by 5:00 p.m.

Toppled trees and falling branches are creating huge problems.  The Sacramento Zoo and Elk Grove Park are both closed due to the possibility of falling branches.

A tree slightly damaged a police car in downtown Sacramento and a large tree in fell onto a school bus in Stockton. Three kindergartners were on the bus at the time, but were not injured.

A big rig lost control on Interstate 5 in south Sacramento crashing across the median and blocking traffic for hours.

In the Sierra a least a half a foot of snow fell Tuesday with more than a foot expected to fall in some areas by the end of the day. The snow level is not expected to dip below 7,000 feet.

Three to six inches of snow had fallen by midday at Mt. Rose-Ski Tahoe between Reno and Lake Tahoe, and at Sugar Bowl near Truckee, Calif., officials for the ski resorts said. Between 10 and 14 inches was expected by nightfall at Mount Rose.

Neither resort plans to open this weekend but Sugar Bowl spokesman Jon Monson said the snow will make for a good base when they do.

The Coast Guard is also urging boaters to stay out of the waters off the coast and interior waterways today through Wednesday unless absolutely necessary because of the high wind warnings. 

The rain and wind are remnants of what used to be Super Typhoon Melor comes off the Pacific Ocean.

Super Typhoon Melor killed two people when it hit Japan last week and cut power to 500,000 homes. The term "Super Typhoon" is roughly equivalent to a category 5 hurricane, which has sustained wind speeds of 150 mph or higher, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)