Neighbors respond to desperate calls for assistance

Jace Radke

Friday, July 9, 1999 | 11:33 a.m.

Petrified with fright as 3 feet of water rushed by the door of her RV, Maureen DiPietro tried to signal for help the only way she could think of.

She found a flashlight and began beaming an SOS out her window as the dark clouds that rolled into the Las Vegas Valley Thursday continued to drop rain on the Boulder Lakes RV Resort at 6201 Boulder Highway.

The resort was inundated with rushing water after a 30-foot section of a 5-foot-tall cinder-block wall burst from the pressure of the waters racing down Duck Creek.

"I was watching television with my boyfriend when we heard a huge sound like an explosion and then a rushing," DiPietro said. "We'd have been swept away if we went out, and it was so loud that I didn't think anyone would hear us scream. All I could think of was to send an SOS with my flashlight."

DiPietro was just one of dozens of valley residents who were stranded in their cars, their homes or even on foot by Thursday's floodwaters. Metro Police helicopters plucked eight people from the waters. Countless other drivers and pedestrians were rescued by officers, both on-duty and off, in trucks, on foot and in one case, in a cherry-picker.

"Everywhere they turned, there were people who needed help out of a car or through an intersection," Metro spokesman Steve Meriwether said.

DiPietro's SOS was answered by her neighbor who spied the flashlight as he pulled into the park on his way home from work.

"I saw they needed help so I got my diesel truck and with the help of a lot of neighbors we were able to get them and some other trapped people out," Steve Meyers said.

Meyers parked his pickup in the middle of the street and using it as an anchor for a chain of neighbors was able to save DiPietro and her boyfriend.

The park residents used similar methods to pull other neighbors to safety.

"As soon as we knew what was going on all the neighbors came out and tried to help and make sure everyone was OK," Noah Sergine said. "Something like this is just a freak of nature or an act of God, so you just try to get everyone to safety.

"I've lived in this park for 10 years, and we've had floods before, but this is the worst."

Clark County and Las Vegas fire crews also bailed out dozens of drivers stuck in flooded streets -- some of them discovered while engines were on ways to other calls. Clark County Fire Department spokesman Bob Leinbach said there were too many emergencies to count.

"We handled every call from the dramatic to the mundane and most of them somewhere in between," Leinbach said.

Flooding left the cement pads the RVs at the Boulder Lakes RV Resort sit on caked with 6 inches of mud. A car near the broken wall was filled up to the steering wheel with mud.

Sheds, tools, furniture and anything else stored outside of the RV's were scattered to the four corners of the lot.

"I don't know how we can clean this up," DiPietro said after deciding to get a hotel for the night. "I do know we're going to need some help."

Sun reporter Cheryl Miller contributed to this story.