440,000 without power as monster storm hits California

The monster storm that has hit California with fierce winds and heavy rain dropped a thick blanket of snow on the Sierra Nevada mountains today and kept thousands of people from their homes in mudslide-prone areas.

Up to 44 inches of snow had fallen in some parts of the Sierra Nevada mountains, the National Weather Service said this morning, keeping a major motorway between Nevada and Northern California closed. Forecasters expected the storm to dump as much as 10 feet at higher elevations by tomorrow.