Rain muddles roads, air travel

Heather Rawlyk

Monday, Feb. 23, 2004 | 11:12 a.m.

San Francisco native Marshall Bakker came to Las Vegas to enjoy a weekend "away from the rain." What Bakker got instead was a taste of home.

"It's not supposed to rain here," he said Sunday afternoon, tiptoeing around puddles as he filled up his gas tank. "What a disaster."

Visitors to Las Vegas from around the country were feeling Bakker's frustration this weekend, something Las Vegas Valley residents felt on the wet roadways.

With a record-breaking rainfall Sunday, the valley slowed down. Rain-related traffic accidents snarled streets and highways, and several flights from McCarran International Airport were either delayed or canceled because of a storm that drenched the West.

Between Friday afternoon and 7:30 this morning, the valley had received more than an inch of rain, National Weather Service meteorologist John Adair said. Sunday's rainfall of 0.68 inches set a new record for the day, Adair said, beating out the 0.37 inches the valley received in 1941.

The Clark County Regional Flood Control District reported this morning that two of its 138 rain gauges located throughout the county recorded more than 2 inches of rain for the last three days. The district also reported almost 6 feet of water in the Carey-Lake Mead Detention Basin located south of the North Las Vegas Airport.

The Las Vegas Valley was expected to get a small break from the rain this afternoon and Tuesday, Adair said.

Mount Charleston received 14 inches of snow from Sunday through this morning, as reported at the Kyle Canyon fire station, Adair said.

The weekend was full of traffic accidents because of slick road conditions, said Trooper Loy Hixson of the Nevada Highway Patrol.

"It's been a very busy day," Hixson said Sunday. "It always is when it rains."

Hixson was one of the many troopers who were called in early in response to afternoon highway accidents, he said.

Between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, the NHP reported 99 accidents in the area, he said. From 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, the NHP reported 42 accidents.

"It's more than we normally get," Hixson said. "When it's not raining during a weekday, we usually handle about 25 the entire day."

Hixson blamed the accidents on a combination of slick roads and speeding on exit ramps.

"Since I've been on, every accident has been either exiting or entering an off- or on-ramp," he said. "The most common accidents are when people don't realize they need to slow down and they take an off-ramp they normally drive at 45 mph when they need to pull it down to 35 mph.

"It's like walking on dry land and then trying to walk on ice. You're going to slip and fall if you don't slow down."

The rain forced the Nevada Department of Transportation to postpone work on St. Rose Parkway near Eastern Avenue, which had been scheduled for this past weekend. Instead of closing as planned, St. Rose Parkway remained open all weekend and will remain open until construction can begin again at a later date, NDOT spokesman Bob McKenzie said. The date for the construction has not been set.

The rainfall was above normal for February but not unusual, Adair, the meteorologist, said.

"During the winter, we can get in these patterns where we get Pacific storms coming through," Adair said. "It's what happened last year and we had a couple of weeks of pretty wet weather."

The wet weather caused some delays for inbound and outbound flights Sunday, most of them for flights coming to McCarran, Debbie Millett, a spokeswoman for McCarran International Airport, said.

"Normally we land about 70 planes an hour, and that was down to 30 for periods of time," she said, adding that the weather made visibility poor.

This morning there were more than two dozen inbound and outbound flights delayed at McCarran, almost all because of the weather.

"The weather around the West and all over the United States is causing delays," spokeswoman Hilarie Grey said.

The National Weather Service was reporting hazardous weather or storm watches throughout most of the Pacific Coast from Washington through Southern California and extending east through Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico and even the northwest corner of Texas.

Grey recommended travelers check McCarran's website at mccarran.com or call their airline to check for delays before heading to the airport.

While the rain tied some things up, for many it was an excuse to stay in and relax.

"I'm always going, going, going and I think everyone here is," valley resident Suzie Garrick said. "We need a good rainy weekend to just sit in and not feel like we have to go anywhere. I'm just picking some things up and going right back inside my warm, dry house."

Amy Pala of Green Valley spent the weekend watching movies with her kids.

"We got 'Finding Nemo' and ordered pizza and just stayed in all weekend," she said. "It was great."

Although Pala enjoys a good rainy weekend, she said she hoped to see the rain dwindle down during the week.

"Rain is fine on the weekend, but I don't like messy weekdays when I have to be out and driving around," she said. "The roads get really messy and full of water and I just hate being out in it. It's dangerous."

Sun reporters Dan Kulin and Christina Littlefield contributed to this story.