Heavy rains and blizzards slammed California on Saturday, triggering floods and mudslides and tying up traffic from southern California to San Francisco and into the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

As much as 8 feet of snow was expected through Tuesday in the northern Sierra Nevada. Wind gusts on some mountain tops reached 160 mph, said Gay Barbato, hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Reno, Nevada. Hundreds of cars were stranded by heavy snow in the San Bernardino National Forest east of Los Angeles, and by a mudslide on Saturday morning.

Forecasters predicted as much as 3 inches of rain in the San Francisco Bay Area over the weekend and as much as to 6 inches to 8 inches in some areas around Los Angeles. Napa and Marin Counties north of San Francisco were particularly hard hit, with floods closing highway exits and swamping parked cars, authorities said.

“What concerns us is the large amount of rain in a very short period of time,” said Wendy Sellers, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Monterey. “Combined with the already saturated ground and high tide with the new moon, there’s an increased risk of flooding and mudslides.” The storm system, which swept to California on Thursday from Alaska, is not expected to let up until today, Sellers said.

Across the country, after days of rain and snow, the Ohio River flooded its banks from Huntington, West Virginia, to Cincinnati, triggering widespread power outages and causing hundreds of residents to flee their homes.

Meteorologists predicted the river would reach its highest level in eight years. The Ohio governor has declared a state of emergency in 49 of the state’s 88 counties. About 101,000 people in Ohio were without power on Saturday for a third day due to flooding as well as ice and snow storms.

Mary PAPENFUSS