Editorial: Flooding is no stranger to the valley

Monday, July 2, 2001 | 9:17 a.m.

Monsoon season usually isn't associated with a desert climate such as that found in Las Vegas, but the fact is that this valley can receive brief, torrential downpours that can create dangerous flooding in the summer. As the Sun's Mary Manning reported Friday, weather systems from Mexico and the California and Gulf coasts can come together west of the Las Vegas Valley, delivering rains that frequently start in the Spring Mountains, eventually descending 2,800 feet to the valley's washes. Depending on the severity of the storm, it can create what seem like rivers in just a few moments, flooding homes, washing away sections of roads or even carrying away cars.

Sunday was the official start of monsoon season and it is a fitting time to see what Southern Nevada has done to mitigate flooding in the valley. Since 1989 the Regional Flood Control District has built 57 detention basins and nearly 270 miles of channels and underground storm drains. The last time a big storm hit was in 1999, when floodwaters left severe damage across the valley, causing about $22 million in damage. Floodwaters also tore through the Miracle Mile Mobile Home Park, taking homes with it into one of the valley's washes. Still, it could have been much worse if it hadn't been for all of those flood control projects during the 1990s. And since the last big flood nearly two years ago, about 20 flood control projects have been finished, which Regional Flood Control District officials believe leaves the valley even better prepared to handle a flood if a significant storm hits again this year.

Much more flood control work still must be completed and it could take several decades before everything is finished. But no matter how advanced engineering becomes in a bid to control the forces of nature, there is only so much that can be done. We will always have floods in the summer. The key is taking reasonable steps to make the valley safer when we have those rare, yet violent, summer storms.