January 07, 2008	Monday	Zilhaj 27, 1428

LOS ANGELES: Storms battered the western United States on Saturday with strong winds, heavy rains and a blanket of snow that caused widespread power outages, a levee break in Nevada and two deaths in California.

In the Los Angeles-area city of Chino, a woman was swept away in floodwaters when she tried to abandon her stalled car, and in Yuba City, north of Sacramento, a worker was killed when a falling tree struck him, according to a spokesman for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. A canal levee broke near Reno, Nevada, flooding an estimated 800 homes and causing some 3,500 residents to evacuate by helicopter and boat, a Nevada Department of Public Safety spokesman said.—Reuters