Flood control
Something was missing from last Wednesday's daylong downpour in Southern Nevada. Yes, we had the usual traffic tie-ups from flooded streets and road closures. Yes, all that rain made a mess of plenty of yards, parking lots and landscaped areas, and some neighborhoods briefly lost power.
The valley registered its second-highest, single-day official rainfall total ever, at 1.65 inches, yet there was almost no property damage anywhere. That's an achievement for an area that typically suffers millions of dollars worth of damage to public and private property during a major deluge.
It's a sign the Clark County Regional Flood Control District is doing its job. Since it was formed in 1985, the agency has spent about $1.7 billion building 90 detention basins and about 573 miles of channels and storm drains, spokeswoman KerriAnne Mukhopadhyay said. An additional $115 million in projects will add more flood control infrastructure.
"All our facilities worked as designed Wednesday. The damage was nothing like what we've seen during previous events," Ms. Mukhopadhyay said.
The death of 17-year-old William Mootz was a tragic reminder of the danger of rushing stormwaters. The Henderson teen fell into Pittman Wash Wednesday morning while playing with friends. His body was found Friday.
Last week's storm wasn't as ferocious as other summer storms that have struck the valley, such as those of July 1999 and August 2003. During a true 100-year storm - one that has a 1 percent chance of happening in any given year - water can quickly overwhelm any intake, filling large detention basins with a foot of water per minute. The district's annual summer flash flood awareness campaigns, featuring clever license plate submissions from residents, are good reminders of how quickly floods overtake people and vehicles.
That said, the flood control district, taxpayers and the businesses that built these projects should take pride in how well they performed last week. With each passing year, we have less to worry about when it rains.
