By Jeff Delong, Reno Gazette-Journal

One of the windiest places in Northern Nevada, Washoe Valley can be just plain scary.

Erik Wingfield of Reno certainly knows. He commutes through the valley daily to his job in Carson City. Driving there with his girlfriend during a recent storm, “it was just scary, period. It was blowing us all around,” Wingfield said.

The wind blew over a truck whose driver ignored an advisory to avoid the highway, Wingfield said.

“That person didn’t do what he needed to do,” said Wingfield, 29. “That’s what bothers me — the possibility of being crushed by a big truck that isn’t obeying.”

Jerry Howry has concerns as well. The Eastlake Boulevard resident says trucks often detour through his neighborhood during wind closures of the highway, even though they are supposed to use Old U.S. 395, or Bowers Mansion Road, on the valley’s western edge.

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