Salt Lake Tribune
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Snowstorm closes roads, zaps electricity
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Posted: 11:45 AM- The latest winter blast to hit Utah wreaked havoc Saturday with power lines and motorists and created high avalanche danger in the state's mountains.

High winds ripped through Tooele, snapping power poles and transmission lines. Many households in the area could remain without power until Sunday night.

Tooele Mayor Patrick Dunlavy said Saturday that police and fire departments stand ready to help, but no residents have requested to evacuate.

"We certainly have resources out there," he said. "My guess is most of those people are either making arrangements in their home [to cope with the lack of heat] . . . or they've made other arrangements with family members."

Additional crews were dispatched from Layton and American Fork to help restore power to 1,500 customers in and around Tooele.

"There were some customers restored, but some were out since last night," Rocky Mountain Power spokesman Dave Eskelsen said Saturday. "Given the fact that we have some transmission trouble out there, people should probably be prepared to go without power into Sunday evening."

An additional 600 electric customers in the Salt Lake Valley and about 500 others were also without power Saturday morning, according to Rocky Mountain Power.

"If we get another storm cell over the area, we may be dealing with power outages through the weekend," Eskelsen said.

Treacherous snow-covered roadways forced the closure of State Road 210 through Little Cottonwood Canyon on Saturday morning. This road to Alta and Snowbird reopened about 1:30 p.m., according to Salt Lake County emergency dispatch.

State Road 226 to Snowbasin also was shut down for a time, according to Weber County emergency dispatch.

Meanwhile, travel on State Road 190 through Big Cottonwood Canyon was restricted to vehicles with four-wheel drive or tire chains. Interstate 80 through Parleys Canyon remains open to all vehicles, though semis are required to have chains, said Trooper Cameron Roden, a Utah Highway Patrol spokesman.

Aside from vehicles sliding off the roadway, I-80 eastbound was flowing slowly, Roden said.

"We've had a lot of crashes . . . very few have had any injuries," Roden said.

As a strong cold front moved through the area Friday, gusts reached upward of 105 mph at the 9,570-foot Ogden Peak and at Snowbasin at 9,000 feet, according to the National Weather Service.

Winds at Salt Lake City International Airport were clocked at 45 mph Friday. Officials at the Utah Avalanche Center say the mix of wet, heavy snow and high winds has caused a high avalanche danger.

The weather service predicts a 50 percent chance of snow in the Salt Lake and Tooele valleys the rest of Saturday with high temperatures in the high 40s and lows in the upper 20s. Snow is also likely on Sunday and Monday, with a 60 percent chance of showers both days.

ngonzalez@sltrib.com

rwinters@sltrib.com

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