Rounds of monsoon rains put Las Vegas Valley flood control system to the test - Fox 5 Las Vegas

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LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - The Chief of Clark County Fire says it was a rain event unlike any he’s seen in the Vegas Valley before. FOX5 has learned extra resources were called in during the storm over the extended Labor Day Holiday weekend in case flood channels overflowed.

FOX5 is getting answers from Clark County Flood Control. Can the Valley handle every storm? The short answer: almost all. In the rarest circumstances there could be failures.

“I’ve never seen it the system tested to that level… the Tropicana Wash in particular was reaching its capacity,” shared Clark County Fire Chief John Steinbeck.

FOX5 shared video of cars being swept into flood channels, vehicles surrounded by water filling roadways, and stories of people who live in the flood control tunnels caught in a life-or-death struggle to get out.

Steinbeck tells FOX5 most of the department was on standby. Nevada Task Force 1, an urban search and rescue team, was prepared to assist with evacuations. Disaster was not imminent, but it is the closest it’s ever come.

“Every drainage system has its limitations, and we had our basins that were starting to give us some concern. We were never concerned about a catastrophic failure like a break, but we were concerned about overflow,” Steinbeck explained.

“You can’t take these flood waters for granted. They have a lot of energy and they will cause problems. They will cause injury or death,” Steven Parrish, General Manager and Chief Engineer of Clark County Flood Control District said.

Parrish revealed Clark County is about 75 percent of the way through a master plan. Currently, there are 684 miles of channels and storm drains. The system is constantly improved with five to ten projects a year, but no system can withstand every weather event.

“We design all of our facilities for what we call the one percent chance storm or the 100 year event, but we can always get a 500 year event a 1,000 year event, then we could see some facilities overtopping and see some flooding in neighborhoods based on that,” Parrish contended. There are facilities currently proposed to target problem areas.

“Tropicana and Boulder Highway. That had a lot of problems this past weekend. We’ve got a storm drain that actual just started design there so we will be working on that design over the next year or so and start construction,” Parrish revealed.

One big question people have: why aren’t gates or bars put on the outside of storm tunnels to keep people out? Parrish stated putting up a barrier could lead to trash getting stuck and water not being able to get through which could lead to flooding.

Clark County Flood Control says they have to prioritize projects with more than 200 miles of storm drains still needing to be build out. A quarter of one percent of sales tax in Clark County goes to flood control.

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Rounds of monsoon rains put Las Vegas Valley flood control system to the test - Fox 5 Las Vegas
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