Flood basins, filled to brim, protect property

Friday, July 9, 1999 | 11:10 a.m.

The 20 major flood control projects that the Regional Flood Control District have built since 1989 worked in Thursday's deluge, one with only an inch or two of room to spare.

"The flood was one of the worst we've ever seen in the valley," engineer Kevin Eubanks of the flood control district said.

Clark County and the cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson and Boulder City have spent more than $300 million to protect lives and property during flooding.

The flood control district expects to spend another $200 million in the next year as it tries to flood-proof the tilting Las Vegas Valley. Full protection is expected to take 30 years.

So much rain fell in a three-hour period on Thursday that the Gowan detention basin at Cheyenne Avenue and Teneya Way nearly filled to capacity, Eubanks said.

If the Gowan basin had not been there, Gowan Road and Summerlin homes could have been destroyed, he said.

The Gowan basin was built after the state paid nearby residents $160,000 for damages from a 1990 flood near the Gowan underpass. Residents had claimed $280,000 in damage against housing developers, the city of Las Vegas and the state. Under the agreement reached by the state Board of Examiners, Nevada paid its part.

In the next two years another $15 million will be spent to channel Gowan's waters away from residents.

Other basins such as those at Red Rock and Las Vegas Creek off Washington Avenue performed as expected, Eubanks said.

But it will take two to five days for the basins to empty, so normally dry valley washes will run with floodwaters even if there is no more rain, Regional Flood Control Director Gale Fraser said.

The Charleston underpass, known by old timers to flood if three people spit on the sidewalk west of it, contained 14 feet of water on Thursday.

To solve Charleston's routine flooding, part of the $200 million will help pay for the Freeway Channel system that should be complete in three years, Eubanks said.

Alta Drive to Wall Street, Washington Avenue to Interstate 15 to Martin Luther King and Alta Drive to the I-15/U.S. 95 intersection and the Union Pacific Railroad yard completes the freeway flood control system.

That should reduce flooding in the Charleston underpass.

Another critical project includes the Tropicana detention basin under design. Construction on Tropicana could begin as soon as December.

The Tropicana basin will catch much of the floodwaters that roar down Duck Creek, threatening homes, hotels and highways.