Wednesday, August 20, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NORTHWEST VALLEY FLOOD: SUDDEN STORM

Mayor declares state of emergency; authorities make dozens of rescues

A Las Vegas Fire Department firefighter is hoisted by a Las Vegas police rescue unit off a firetruck caught in a torrent Tuesday evening at the corner of Gowan Road and Rainbow Boulevard. Thunderstorms quickly dumped more than 2 inches of rain on parts of northwest Las Vegas. Photo by John Locher. A Las Vegas police rescue helicopter fights high winds Tuesday to rescue a motorist who became stranded in floodwaters at Gowan Road and Jones Boulevard. Photo by Craig L. Moran. Dusty Rhodes clears branches from an uprooted tree in his yard on Half Shell Drive in the Desert Shores community of northwest Las Vegas. Photo by Clint Karlsen. Click image for enlargement. Graphic by Mike Johnson. As floodwaters encroach upon homes in the Desert Shores community, 14-year-old Britney Cordova, left, Sarah Lewis, 19, and Jessica Kell, 19, pull a trash can away from a gate on Half Shell Drive. Photo by Clint Karlsen. Juliette Lopez sits in her vehicle as water rushes by at Rainbow Boulevard and Gowan Road. She later escaped from the car after it hit a light pole. Photo by John Locher. Floodwaters Tuesday evening submerge Gowan Road under a closed U.S. Highway 95 after a thunderstorm that struck the northwest Las Vegas Valley. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

Brief but intense thunderstorms flooded northwest Las Vegas Tuesday, creating harrowing scenes in which police helicopters skirted power lines to pluck stranded motorists from the rushing water.

There were no reports of deaths or life-threatening injuries from the storm, which began around 4 p.m. and quickly overwhelmed flood control facilities.

"These thunderstorms are just dumping everything they've got," National Weather Service forecaster Larry Jensen said.

Authorities made nearly 60 rescues. In nine of the most daring, police officers dangling from helicopter cables saved motorists, and in one case, firefighters, who were trapped in or atop vehicles.

Mayor Oscar Goodman declared a local state of emergency, placing public safety officials on call and laying the groundwork for the city to seek federal aid.

As many as 3,000 homes in the northwest valley lost power because of the storm. Service was restored by 7:30 p.m.

Rain fell at such a rate near Gowan Road and U.S. Highway 95 that it overwhelmed the intakes to flood control basins in the area. Basins remained unfilled even as water cascaded through nearby streets.

"We've had rainfall double what the system was designed to handle," said Gale Fraser, general manager of the Clark County Regional Flood Control District.

The National Weather Service Tuesday evening said it was too early to characterize the deluge as a 100-year storm, one with a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year.

The valley's flood control facilities are designed for 100-year storms, defined as 1.8 inches of rain in a 30-minute period.

The region's last 100-year storm struck in July 1999, killing two, sweeping away mobile homes and flooding businesses.

City Manager Doug Selby said Las Vegas officials were caught off guard by the intensity of Tuesday's storm. The National Weather Service typically alerts the city in the morning if any intense storms or flooding are expected that day. No such warning was issued Tuesday morning.

"It caught most everyone by surprise," Selby said.

Typical of the Las Vegans who had to be rescued Tuesday afternoon, Juliette Lopez thought her vehicle would be able to overcome swift water surging down Rainbow Boulevard near Gowan.

She was wrong.

"I had the window rolled down, and out of nowhere, the water just starts pouring in," said Lopez, 56, a security guard at Fitzgeralds. "In no time, the water's covering my seats, and then I couldn't see the seats anymore."

As the water quickly moved up her lap, the water outside picked up her sport utility vehicle.

"It was moving so fast," Lopez said. "I went backwards three blocks in the water."

After the SUV crashed into a pole, she was pulled to safety by a Review-Journal photographer.

Moments later, the water again overtook her vehicle and it disappeared beneath the torrent.

Others trapped in their vehicles had to await rescue from the Metropolitan Police Department, which dispatched two Huey helicopters and an MD500 chopper to lower officers by cables to pluck stranded motorists from deluged vehicles.

Unlike storms in the past where motorists got caught trying to navigate through flood waters, Tuesday's flood occurred so quickly that it trapped drivers who minutes before were on dry land, said Las Vegas police Lt. Tim Leveque, commander of the search-and-rescue squad.

"We had a large volume of calls and as (the pilots) responded, they flew over more incidents that had yet to be reported," Leveque said. "So we had calls for services and what the crews were observing themselves."

Because of the aircraft noise, rescuers were unable to shout commands at the people they were trying to help. They simply grabbed those stranded in vehicles or atop roofs.

The victim would then be strapped into a harness, hoisted into the helicopter and dropped off at the nearest landing area.

At one point, even the rescuers needed rescuing.

Rushing waters overtook a Las Vegas Fire Department engine just before 6 p.m. at Rainbow and Gowan, imperiling four firefighters who had been helping civilians.

Gary Woolbright, a tow truck driver for Quality Towing, was dispatched to winch the engine out of the water. But by the time he arrived, he could no longer help them.

"When I got here, the water was up to the windshield," Woolbright said.

The firefighters needed assistance from the nearby police search-and-rescue helicopter, but could not call for help because police and fire department radios are not linked.

Sheriff Bill Young's wife, a city Fire Department employee, dialed her husband's cell phone from the scene.

"My wife told me what was going on, so I called it in to search-and-rescue and they got dispatched," Young said.

The police helicopter pulled the firefighters to safety and dropped them off in nearby Children's Memorial Park. The firefighters were picked up there around 7 p.m. by another fire truck.

"It was pretty slick watching that rescue," said neighborhood resident Dan Alhona. "I mean, that helicopter was just 10 or 15 feet above the power lines."

Warehouse supervisor Bob Goodrich waited for rescuers atop his car for 30 minutes at Tenaya Way and Gowan.

Goodrich said he remained calm for as long as he could. But when he saw the firefighters arrive, he became a little frantic.

"I was beckoning the fire department to hurry up," Goodrich recalled, re-enacting the arm motions he used to make his point. "I was like, 'Come on guys.' ... It seemed like an eternity."

Finally, a rescuer descended from a helicopter and attached a harness to Goodrich, who was brought to safety.

Some Las Vegans weren't in mortal danger, but are dealing today with severe flooding damage that destroyed carpets, drywall and furniture.

John Peabody's home near Gowan and Rainbow was one of many invaded by brown floodwaters some 4 inches deep.

"This place has to be gutted," Peabody, a 39-year-old valet, said after surveying the damage at his Chardonay Way home.

About 6 p.m., Peabody's neighbor, Rochelle Rogner, looked outside and saw her van start to float.

As if that wasn't enough to contend with, water then surged through the 27-year-old's garage and into her home.

"It's not so much that we're endangered, we're just devastated," said Rogner, who is eight months pregnant with her third child.

Many of the homeowners were uncertain whether they had flood insurance to cover the damage.

A couple of miles away, the downpour wasn't bothering Trish Pastore.

But the Clark County School District teacher became frightened in her home near Rampart Boulevard and Cheyenne Avenue when hail began pounding the outside of the house about 4 p.m.

"It was torrential, just out of nowhere," said Pastore, 56. "They weren't as big as golf balls, but it was like big pearls coming down everywhere."

With help from good Samaritans, Tammy Levine managed to escape her car when it was overtaken by water at Craig Road and Tenaya.

But the receptionist was injured shortly afterward when she tried to make it home on foot down a water-covered sidewalk.

Levine fell in a manhole, the lid of which had washed away.

"I'm up to my chest in water, and I was terrified," she said. "It took three people to pull me up out of there."

Levine suffered an 8-inch cut on her leg, as well as a severe bruise on the back of a thigh.

"I guess it could've been worse," said Levine, who turns 39 years old today.

Her fortunes soon improved.

"A fireman saw me crying on the street and gave me a ride home."

Around 5:30 p.m., after the major rains had subsided, floodwaters ravaged Vegas Drive between Jones and Decatur boulevards.

Shaun Rogers sat in his older model Toyota pickup, which had died when the engine got wet about 20 minutes earlier.

"I'm just waiting for it to dry off," he said as his truck blocked already choked traffic.

His 15-year-old son, Evertt, didn't seem to mind the wait. "I saw a rat float by," he said.

Uncertain how high the water would rise on Gowan, 75-year-old Theresa Burns and her adult daughter climbed atop a shed in their yard and stayed there an hour waiting for the water to subside.

Her son-in-law broke the fence in the back to let the water gush out. Her daughter feared her husband would get electrocuted, Burns said.

"There were kids out in the street rolling around in that rushing water," Burns said. "You'd think the parents would have stopped them, the water was so dirty."

About 6:30 p.m., the Nevada Highway Patrol closed U.S. Highway 95 between Ann Road and Jones because of the downpour.

The freeway had flooded in areas and vehicles were stalled in water near Jones, said Highway Patrol spokeswoman Angie Wolff.

Nevada Department of Transportation crews were working through the night to reopen the freeway, clearing gravel and sediment from the pavement and checking for damage.

"We hope to get the road open as soon as we can, hopefully by rush hour in the morning," Transportation Department spokesman Bob McKenzie said.

Police closed numerous other intersections on Gowan, Rainbow, Tenaya, Craig and Alexander Road, clogging traffic on many of the valley's busiest roadways.

Crews also worked late into the night clearing city streets and assessing damage. No official damage estimate was available late Tuesday night. Officials said they expected all major streets to be open before midnight.

Tuesday's downpour also was responsible for at least one electrical fire in the western part of the valley.

As the torrents subsided, water seeping into an electrical sign over a car wash convenience store at the corner of Fort Apache Road and Charleston Boulevard caused a short that sparked a fire, said Tim Szymanski, spokesman for the Las Vegas Fire Department. Damage at Fabulous Freddy's Car Wash and Convenience Store was estimated at more than $100,000.

The center of Tuesday's storm hovered above Lone Mountain in northwest Las Vegas, dropping as much as 3 inches of rain in a 45-minute period.

"I don't know that any of it was unusual," said John Salmen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "It was just all the ingredients came together at the same time, and they were all efficient in precipitating a storm."

There were early afternoon thunderstorms that formed over the mountains north of Las Vegas with a boost from a storm cluster that originated the night before in northwest Mexico.

There were 102-degree temperatures that saw surface air climb skyward and flip with cooler air, destabilizing the skies at about 50,000 feet above sea level.

And it was all funneled skyward by the Sheep and Spring Mountain ranges that tower above the northern valley.

Another set of storms caused less severe problems in the southern part of the valley.

Shortly after 6 p.m., a Henderson police officer spotted a man who was stranded in a sedan, which sat in rushing water on Spencer Street near St. Rose Parkway. The officer called for help, and a crew from the Henderson Fire Department arrived a short time later.

With the water in the street reaching nearly to the top of the car's license plate, members of the Fire Department rescued the man by tying him to each of them and helping him walk out of the water.

Henderson police said flooding also caused temporary closures of St. Rose near the Henderson Airport and Eastern Avenue at Horizon Ridge Parkway.

The Weather Service is forecasting more thunderstorms for today, but expects the most severe ones will be just outside the valley.

The following Review-Journal reporters contributed to this report: Michael Squires, Richard Lake, Jane Ann Morrison, Dave Berns, Adrienne Packer, Frank Curreri, Carri Geer Thevenot, Keith Rogers, Glenn Puit, Juliet Casey and Frank Geary.