Placer County officials announce state of emergency as grueling winter storms continue

As winter storms continue, Placer County officials announced on Friday a local state of emergency.

The county, after receiving up to 8 feet of snow during last week’s blizzard and facing the threat of more rough weather, is requesting state and federal assistance as “the response is beyond the capabilities of local resources,” officials said.

There are 2,000 households throughout the county without power, officials said. Several communities along the Interstate 80 corridor are affected by the outages as well as most of Foresthill.

In neighboring Nevada County, 8,113 residents are struggling with outages.

Earlier this week, an 80-year-old Foresthill woman died as a result of the storm. Her porch collapsed on her Tuesday.

“This week’s storms added to an already challenging winter for our communities, and it’s not over yet,” Placer Director of Emergency Services and County Executive Officer Jane Christenson said in a news release. “Our first responders and road crews continue to work around the clock to keep our residents safe and roads clear.

“As we hunker down for another storm, we encourage everyone to do as much as they can to prepare while conditions are clear and look out for our neighbors in the coming days.”

More snow predicted in Placer County

A separate set of storms forecast for the weekend could drop an additional 4 feet of snow in the mountains. Snow likely will fall as low as Auburn, which is at about 1,200 feet in elevation.

According to Placer County officials, emergency operations have been activated since Feb. 26 to support countywide responses in coordination with Cal Fire and the Placer County Sheriff’s Office.

A state of emergency is also in affect in 13 other California counties as a result of the storms, according to a Wednesday news release from Gov. Gavin Newsom.

• Amador
• Kern
• Los Angeles
• Madera
• Mariposa
• Mono
• Nevada
• San Bernardino
• San Luis Obispo
• Santa Barbara
• Sierra
• Sonoma
• Tulare

Officials are urging residents to call 211 for information and resource needs, but to use 911 only for life-threatening emergencies.

This story was originally published March 4, 2023 at 10:35 AM.