Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

NHP deluged with traffic accidents

Rain soaked the Las Vegas Valley overnight, leaving police scrambling to deal with numerous traffic accidents and flooding that caused at least part of one road to be closed.

No serious injuries or deaths caused by the weather were reported, but troopers from the Nevada Highway Patrol were overwhelmed with minor traffic accidents. The weather also caused about 1,000 valley residents to lose power Sunday night.

The highway patrol saw more than 30 minor accidents Sunday -- three times the total for a typical Sunday -- and troopers were so busy they couldn't keep up with all the accidents, and at times took up to 45 minutes to get to an accident, Trooper Loy Hixson, a spokesman for the highway patrol, said.

Hixson said there was flooding in the median along U.S. 95 near Las Vegas Boulevard, but the water did not cause any lane closures.

But the high water did cause trouble for traffic in other areas, such as in North Las Vegas, where police closed Commerce Street between Ann and Centennial roads around 9:50 p.m. because of flooding, Officer Sean Walker said.

Police came upon a vehicle stuck in high water on Commerce Street, but the driver and any passengers had already left the area, Walker said.

The Clark County Fire Department was not dispatched to rescue anyone from fast-moving water, Trent Jenkins, a spokesman for the department, said.

Meanwhile new construction near Jones and Rainbow boulevards created a series of problems for drivers in southwest Las Vegas, as water overflowing from the Blue Diamond detention basin flowed along the street, much of which does not have curbs or gutters installed yet, Gale Fraser, general manager of the Clark County Regional Flood Control District, said.

Cars this morning were mostly able to cross the standing water, although those who went on unpaved sections of the roads were often stuck, Fraser said.

"That's why it's important not to drive through flooded areas because you don't know what the water is like beneath you," Fraser said. "It's just common sense."

The rain also left some valley residents in the dark Sunday night.

About 1,000 Nevada Power customers lost power from about 8 p.m. until 9:40 p.m. Sunday because of a fire on a utility pole near the intersection of Valley View Boulevard and Pioneer Avenue, company spokeswoman Sonya Headen said.

She said it was unknown whether the fire was weather related.

Rain is expected to continue with scattered showers today, followed by dry weather Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and then a chance of rain again Friday, National Weather Service meteorologist Andrew Gorelow said.

McCarran International Airport, where rainfall totals are officially measured, saw 0.67 inches by this morning, according to the weather service.

By late Sunday night, 1.1 inches of rain had fallen in Summerlin, 0.9 inches was measured near Henderson, Gorelow said.

During a normal year, 4.49 inches of rain falls at McCarran, and by 10 p.m. Sunday 4.51 inches of rain had fallen there this year, he said.

Also, Sunday's rain alone topped the normal for the month of November, when 0.31 inches of rain is typical.

There was an urban and small streams flooding warning in place from 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday, and a heavy snow warning for elevations above 7,500 feet is in effect until 4 p.m. today.

At the Mount Charleston Lodge, Terrie Hamilton, daughter of the lodge's owner, said there was more than half an inch of rain during the day Sunday. The lodge received less than an inch of snow overnight, far less than employees had braced for, Hamilton said.

"We're sitting up here in the sunshine right now," Hamilton said.

But it may not last long. Up to 18 inches of snow is expected in the mountains above 7,500 feet by the end of the today, Gorelow said.

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