Showers keep valley’s roads wet, stall traffic

Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2001 | 11:36 a.m.

Wet month

The National Weather Service declared this February the fifth-wettest on record. Here are the years with inch totals:

Rain-slicked roadways caused the third truck accident in three days, leaving Southern Nevada motorists crawling through the morning rush hour today as showers continued in the Las Vegas Valley.

The National Weather Service issued a small stream and urban flooding advisory expected to expire at noon. Showers were expected to continue until midnight, followed by dense fog through Thursday morning, meteorologist Charlie Schlott said.

Rain in the valley since 5 p.m. Tuesday ranged from 0.5 inches in the southwest area to 1.1 inches at Eastern Avenue and Flamingo Road.

A foot of fresh snow fell in the Spring Mountains above 5,000 feet and two feet of snow was expected above 7,000 feet, where Mount Charleston Lodge is located, Schlott said.

The stormy weather caused a double tanker truck carrying 6,600 gallons of gasoline to overturn on Interstate 15 at Sahara Avenue about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday and spill about 100 gallons of fuel. There were no injuries, but the freeway was closed until 6:30 a.m.

A second accident at the same site occurred about 8:15 a.m. today, but the freeway remained open. On Monday a tractor-trailer dumped its load of pipe on I-15, closing the road.

A third truck accident on I-15 near Overton, about 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas, closed the freeway there on Monday.

The Nevada Highway Patrol, Clark County firefighters with the hazardous materials response team and the Nevada Department of Transportation responded to the gas spill, cleaning most of it up before rush hour, NDOT spokesman Bob McKenzie said.

Charleston Underpass west of Main Street was closed overnight due to flooding, reopening about 7:15 a.m. The underpass is undergoing a $35 million flood-proofing project scheduled for completion in April 2002.

Other Las Vegas streets were closed about 7:15 a.m. at Commerce Drive and Fairfield Avenue behind the Stratosphere Tower and the area bounded by Western Avenue, Oakey Boulevard and Highland Drive, said city spokeswoman Debbie Hauth.

As the fifth-wettest February on record ends, weather forecasters and flower experts are looking forward to wildflowers blooming across Southern Nevada's deserts the next couple of months.

From mid-March through April the desert will come alive around Las Vegas, according to Pete Duncombe, administrator of the Desert Demonstration Garden, at Valley View Boulevard and Alta Drive.