Pahrump roads a sepia-toned mess after massive storm

PAHRUMP — Spencer Jones has lived in the valley for 40 years, but he’s never seen a storm like the one that hit Pahrump on Sunday night.

“I’ve seen minor puddles here and there, some winds, but nothing like this,” Jones said. “It’s everywhere.”

Photos of the town’s roads following Sunday evening’s storm look as though they’ve been put through a sepia filter, but it’s dirt and clay that cake the main roadways, exploding into clouds of dust as cars drive down reopened streets.

The damage is not intense, but the visual is: a reminder that in the desert, nothing is predictable — and when it rains, it pours.

“I had a 10-gallon bucket sitting out, and it had a few inches of water in it, all within an hour or two at most,” Jones said.

Pahrump averages 4.78 inches of precipitation a year, according to the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection. On Sunday, 2.45 inches fell in the town, the highest rainfall total of anywhere in the valley.

For people like Jones, who is used to heavy rains in the winter after having lived in Northern California, the storms are nothing new. But for born-and-bred Nevadans, they can present a challenge — especially for those residents of Pahrump who, like Jones, live in mobile homes or trailers more susceptible to storm damage than brick-and-mortar dwellings.

“The impact here is different — many people are in trailers — and people here aren’t prepared for it,” Jones said. “It has more of an impact here than in places like Sacramento, where the homes are built to withstand storms.”

Jones’ trailer has damage to its ceiling and walls from the rain, but he lives on a hill and escaped the worst of the storm. Some residents reported flooding and power outages, and 23 people required help from emergency crews after their vehicles got stuck in flood waters, according to the Pahrump Fire Department.

Some parts of Highway 160 were closed after boulders washed onto the roadway, and mud was causing problems for drivers on many surface streets. Two days later, the cleanup was expected to last at least another day.

“A lot of it is dirt and clay. It’s a pain,” Jones said. “It will take awhile to get it all cleaned up.”

Contact Stephanie Grimes at sgrimes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @steph_grimes on Twitter.