Rainy days

Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2000 | 11:16 a.m.

The Las Vegas Valley was drying out this morning after a Monday deluge caused flooding on many streets, but the rain was still being felt on some roadways.

A champagne ceremony to toast the removal of a giant crane from the Spaghetti Bowl freeway project was delayed for the second time in a week by the wet weather.

As the last segment of the redesigned roadway where Interstate 15 meets U.S. 95 is completed, the big derrick was expected to be removed today, Nevada Department of Transportation spokesman Bob McKenzie said.

"It's an insignificant delay," McKenzie said, adding that the early-morning toast had been rescheduled for Wednesday at 5 a.m. A storm last Wednesday delayed the crane's removal the first time.

"The weather, it's becoming an inconvenience now," McKenzie said of the delays. The project is still six months ahead of schedule, he said.

But McKenzie had other concerns about the flooding in the Las Vegas Valley on Monday.

While waiting for the third in a series of winter storm systems pounding Southern Nevada and California this week, McKenzie said he saw some children riding their bikes in storm drains churning muddy water filled with debris and bacteria.

"All they need is a wall of water to come down, and they're gone," McKenzie said, adding he had seen it happen in Texas during similar storms. "It's a real danger."

No rescues were required in Las Vegas on Monday, but rescuers in San Diego had to pull three teenagers to safety after they became mired in a flooded river. California received more than 6 inches of rain in the storm, the National Weather Service said.

The Las Vegas Valley's annual rainfall total soared to 1.38 inches as of midnight Monday. The normal total for this time of year is 0.89 of an inch, the weather service reported.

Heavy rains began to fall on the west side of the valley about 5 a.m. Monday, inundating streets and the Charleston Underpass west of Main Street. As the 12 feet of water in the underpass receded, cleanup crews found an abandoned car.

The Desert Rose Golf Course near Sahara Avenue and Nellis Boulevard was covered with mud, because the Las Vegas and Flamingo washes meet there. During the heaviest runoff, the wash at Flamingo Road was running at more than 4,000 cubic feet per second, compared with normal flows below 1,000 cubic feet per second, according to a U.S. Geological Survey monitor.

Other flooded roadways included Boulder Highway at Russell Road, Tropicana Avenue and Industrial Road and Oakey Boulevard at Western Avenue. All had reopened this morning.

It will take another 20 years before measures to control flooding in the valley are complete, said Gale Fraser, director of the Clark County Regional Flood Control District. The $200 million already spent in the past 10 years is paying off and protecting homes and lives. Another $150 million worth of projects is on the drawing board, he said.

Those projects include improvements made last summer to the bridge spanning the wash near the Miracle Mile Mobile Home Park, whose anxious residents watched as flood waters raced beneath their soggy feet. On July 8 during a severe cloudburst, two mobile homes washed away as flood waters poured over the banks of the ditch. No flooding occurred inside the park on Monday.

The $9.8 million Lakes Detention Basin project designed with the county Public Works and county Parks and Recreation Department at Desert Inn Road from Grand Canyon to Durango drives was still scheduled to break ground at 11:30 a.m. today from the shelter of a tent.

For the next couple of days, temperatures will remain cold with a high of 57 degrees for today and a predicted 56 degrees on Wednesday. Scattered showers and a chance of thunderstorms also return on Wednesday.

Colder air from the Gulf of Alaska is riding between two jet streams that are funneling storms into Southern California and Nevada, lined up like targets in a shooting gallery. Until the northern jet stream goes back toward Canada, weather systems spawned in the Pacific Ocean will continue to pummel the West, weather service meteorologists said.

Mary Manning covers environmental issues for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-4065 or by e-mail at manning@lasvegassun.com