Avalanche hits California apartments amid extreme snow; residents safely evacuated
Deputies and search crews responded to an avalanche Tuesday evening in Placer County’s Olympic Valley area, but no injuries were reported and all occupants of an affected building were accounted for, authorities said.
The avalanche happened around 7 p.m. in Olympic Valley, striking a three-story apartment building, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.
Everyone inside the building was safely evacuated, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
“The avalanche was approximately 200 yards wide and 25 feet deep and engulfed the bottom two stories of the building,” authorities wrote.
Sheriff’s deputies as well as the Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue assisted with search and evacuation efforts. Nearby areas were also evacuated due to high avalanche risk.
The Tahoe Nordic team used K-9 units to search for additional victims, but “at this time there is no indication anyone else was caught in the path of the avalanche,” the Sheriff’s Office wrote Wednesday morning.
Olympic Valley, home to about 800 people, is just north of the Palisades Tahoe ski resort along Highway 89. The city is at an elevation of about 6,200 feet.
Amid an extreme snow storm this week, Palisades Tahoe saw more than 4 feet of snow from Sunday through Monday, according to the National Weather Service, and had been forecast to receive more than another foot by the end of Tuesday.
This story was originally published March 1, 2023 at 8:09 AM.
