High wind gives valley a thorough dusting

Mary Manning and Ed Koch

Tuesday, April 16, 2002 | 11:09 a.m.

Monday's windstorms blew cooler weather back into the Las Vegas Valley, leaving the area this morning looking forward to a week's worth of sunny skies, cool breezes and highs in the mid-70s.

Gusts of up to 70 mph -- one was unofficially recorded at 90 mph -- buffeted three Southern Nevada counties Monday, kicking up dust to unhealthy levels, fanning fires, tearing roofs off mobile homes and a senior citizen complex, knocking out power and grounding planes.

"That was a little excessive yesterday," National Weather Service meterologist Charlie Schlott said this morning. "You get that during the spring, though. It's our windy time of year."

The wind brought with it some cooler air, also more normal for this time of year than the highs in the 90s that the area experienced over the weekend, Schlott said.

"Those temperatures last week were way out of the norm," he said. Normal highs in April are 77 to 78, he said. Sunday's high of 95 tied a record for April 14.

Dust levels across the Las Vegas Valley threatened both visibility and health. The 30 Clark County Air Quality Division enforcement officials ensured hundreds of construction sites were closed or watered down, but thousands of acres of disturbed desert surface blanketed the air with unhealthful levels of dust, officer Bob Foley said.

People with respiratory problems were advised to stay indoors.

The gusty winds raking Southern Nevada also grounded more than 30 flights for more than two hours at McCarran International Airport, the seventh largest airport in the nation. The FAA delayed flights at 1:15 p.m. until 3:30 p.m. Monday.

The American Red Cross sent volunteers to Lincoln and Nye counties after reports that mobile homes were knocked of their foundations or had lost roofs. A North Las Vegas senior citizen housing complex had its roof ripped off, requiring 60 people to be evacuated..

Afternoon gusts tore down trees and power lines throughout the valley, knocking out electricity to 85,000 Nevada Power Co. customers.

Nearby communities of Jean, Blue Diamond, Indian Springs and Cold Creek at Mount Charleston remained without power for most of the day after 20 power poles were knocked down.

Nevada Power spokesman Edgar Patino said 90 percent of all customers had been restored by 7 p.m. Monday. Normally, about six outages are reported a day, but Monday there were 178 power failures, he said.

The power outages caused numerous traffic accidents at major intersections across the valley.

In addition, the wind created hazardous conditions on the freeways. A truck rig overturned at Interstate 15 near the Blue Diamond turnoff about 4 p.m.

The Fremont Street Experience reported up to $30,000 in wind damages, primarily from a giant banner torn down at Fremont and Casino Center Boulevards, spokesman Mark Paris said. "The banner and some of the neon lights were damaged, but the show will go on," he said.

Two fires fanned by Monday's winds disrupted Las Vegas apartment dwellers and a North Las Vegas business.

A two-alarm fire at an apartment complex at 2500 Karen Ave. injured one firefighter, left 14 families displaced and caused $250,000 property damage. Winds blew flames onto an adjacent building.

"The wind definitely was a big factor during the fire," Clark County Fire Department spokesman Bob Leinbach said. "We stayed on the scene longer than usual because these type of winds can kick it up again."

The wind-whipped blaze began at about 1:35 p.m. and a second alarm was sounded 10 minutes later. It took more than 20 minutes to knock the fire down, Leinbach said, noting the blaze was contained to the one building.

The injured firefighter suffered second-degree burns on a knee and shoulder, Leinbach said. The leg burn was the result of carpet melting on his overalls above his boots, he said.

Mike Ozbun sat in a folding chair, drinking a beer as he watched firefighters battle the wind-whipped flames licking out of the roof of the second-floor apartment he had moved into days earlier.

"I was in my apartment with my friend Keith and we were talking about a bartender friend who had just died when Keith stepped out for a moment saw the flames and yelled, 'Mike we got to get out of here, your building is on fire,"' Ozbun said.

"I got out and Keith came down after me carrying the beer. I had $20,000 worth of computer equipment in my apartment, but bless his heart, Keith saved the beer. Now I at least have something to do while I watch this disaster."

Ozbun, a salesman and semi-professional poker player, said he had not yet had an opportunity to get insurance on his apartment.

While cradling a 12-pack of Milwaukee Best Ice beer, Gilcrest knocked on the doors of apartments, rousting tenants and getting them to safety. One of them was Charles Watkins, a graveyard shift cook at a local hotel, who was asleep.

"I couldn't believe it because I already lost most of my stuff in a storage unit fire, and now this fire has destroyed the rest of my stuff," he said. "I haven't even filed a loss claim on the first fire yet. I was lucky to get out of this one."

The apartment management put up the displaced families at its other apartment complexes around the valley, Leinbach said. The Clark County Chapter of the American Red Cross provided food coupons to the displaced, he said.

At least 23 units from Las Vegas and North Las Vegas fire departments responded to another two-alarm fire about 1:13 p.m. at Able Distributing, 204 Mayflower St.

"When we first got here the fire was whipping into the palm trees at the Municipal Golf Course," Las Vegas Fire & Rescue Battalion Chief Diane Moynes said, pointing to a singed tree at the southwestern edge of the golf course.

A storage yard containing plastics, cardboard and other containers was engulfed with flames that kept rekindling despite water and foam poured on the fire, Las Vegas Fire Battalion Chief Bob Huntley said.