Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Flooding threatens Overton, Mesquite

A pre-recorded update of area conditions is available at (702) 223-4636.

As winter storms continued to sweep across California into Nevada, avalanches still threaten those in the Spring Mountains while floodwaters are prompting evacuations in low-lying areas of Overton and Mesquite in northeast Clark County.

Emergency personnel, including Metro Police officers and rescue workers from the Clark County Fire Department, began evacuating about 250 residents in parts of Overton about 7:30 this morning, as floodwater approached the town, Erik Pappa, a Clark County spokesman, said. Overton is about 63 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

Spotters for Metro and the National Weather Service observed faster waters reaching the town about 4 a.m. today and had prepared to evacuate the town this morning. About 45 tons of sand, 2,000 sandbags and emergency responders were on hand for the voluntary evacuation, Pappa said.

"We're strongly advising people that for their own safety they evacuate," he said.

Pappa said he did not know how deep or wide the waters had become but said the Virgin River's flow had increased four-fold overnight. In Mesquite, the Virgin River had reached up to a mile wide late Monday night, county crews said.

In Overton, the Regional Transportation Commission provided two 40-passenger CAT buses and a smaller paratransit bus to shuttle Overton residents to an LDS stake center that is being used as a shelter because it is on higher ground, Jim O'Brien, director of county emergency management, said.

About a dozen people had moved to the shelter as of 10:30 this morning and more were arriving by the minute. David Schram and his wife, Karen, were among the recent evacuees at the shelter. They said they had known something might be wrong early this morning when their lovebird, Lovie, began chirping loudly this morning.

The bird "just started going crazy," Karen Schram said. "They (animals) can sense it."

By 10 a.m. the couple had left their home in the Robbins Nest Mobile Home Park in Overton for the shelter. But they arrived with only the clothes on their back. Lovie was left at home.

David Schram said they and everyone else in their trailer park had been told to evacuate immediately, so they had but because the sky had cleared -- at least temporarily -- they were optimistic that they could return home soon.

Meanwhile, in Mesquite, northeast of Overton near the Utah state line, Mayor Bill Nicholes said that this morning the Virgin River, while still much wider than it normally runs, did appear to be down about three and a half feet from its overnight high mark.

That had given a brief respite to the more than 1,000 volunteers who turned out to help clean the debris that had blanketed the area.

An exact damage estimate was not available this morning, but Nicholes said 25 homes of the town's roughly 5,000 existing residences were at least partially damaged by the floodwaters. No injuries or widespread damage were reported.

"It's looking a lot better this morning," he said. "We just got a double-whammy of it. We're very blessed to have had no casualties and no loss of (livestock) life."

O'Brien said he decided to open the county's emergency operations center at the County Government Center at 10 p.m. Monday when the Spring Mountain avalanche threat combined with flooding in Mesquite from the Virgin River and potential runoff in Moapa Valley from the Muddy River.

"When you've got three things staring you in the face, cell (phone) management doesn't work," O'Brien said.

By midnight about 85 people, mostly concerned citizens, had called the public information line, O'Brien said.

Each caller learned about the county's plans, from emergency evacuations to rescuing family pets.

Runoff flowing down Meadow Valley Wash, a channel that drains parts of Lincoln County, was producing "significant" flows.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for the Mesquite and Overton areas that is to last until 6 a.m. Wednesday.

The Amercan Red Cross was also preparing to shelter and feed anyone displaced by floodwaters as authorities continue to monitor the situation and consider whether to force evacuations.

Everyone from senior citizens holding the bags to high school students, dismissed early from school, pitched in to help shovel sand into the bags and protect the town.

"We had some anxious moments this afternoon," Nicholes said Monday night. Volunteers had been working to bulldoze dirt berms around the rising river since 5 a.m. Monday.

A three-person crew from the Nevada Department of Transportation kept an eye on a bridge connecting Mesquite to Bunkerville, a riverside pioneer town southwest of the city.

The river normally flows from 15 feet to 20 feet in its channel below the bridge, Nicholes said. Monday night the waters came within eight feet of the bridge's bottom. The river was not expected to flood the bridge.

Clark County Public Works Department sent 6,000 sand bags to Mesquite Monday. spokesman Bobby Shelton said.

Then the townspeople needed sand.

"We had trucks loaded with sand and we didn't even know where the hell they came from," Nicholes said.

By this morning, a number of local grocery stores had reopened and residents were stocking up on the essentials, he said.

"People are out there going to the grocery store to pick up water and doughnuts," Nicholes said.

Some 20 residents volunteered to leave their homes as the river rose. Three people on oxygen left and went to the Virgin River hotel and casino where general manager Lex Hall offered them rooms. The Oasis also offered rooms to anyone needing a place to stay.

Across the state line in Arizona, flooding inundated the Hamilton Ranch, once a working ranch that was converted into a golf course with a restaurant.

"At least we haven't got 16 feet of snow," Nicholes said with a short laugh.

Mesquite is 32 miles northeast of the Moapa Valley, but the area is connected by the Virgin and the Muddy rivers and there has been flooding in the past.

Two back-to-back storm systems in August 1981 unleashed between 6 and 7 inches of rain in less than three hours on Moapa Valley, National Weather Service records show. No people were killed in the ensuing flood but 300 cows drowned.

Closer to the Las Vegas Valley, forestry officials on Mount Charleston received word of an avalanche in the Echo Canyon area about 10 a.m., but initial reports indicated no homes were damaged. Emergency crews were waiting to hear if they were needed.

Metro Police advised the 120 residents of the canyon to leave until weather improved and the snowpack stabilized, Metro Police Sgt. Chris Jones said.

The Echo Canyon recommendation was not a mandatory evacuation because the homes and lots are private property, Forest Service spokeswoman Robbie McAboy said.

On Sunday an avalanche killed 13-year-old Allen Brett Hutchison, an eighth grader at Sig Rogich Middle School, at Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort. The resort was closed Monday and remained closed today.

Also this morning a porch and gazebo collapsed under the weight of the snow, rain and ice at a house in the Cathedral Rock subdivision on Mount Charleston, while a chimney broke off the house next door after a large mound of snow slid down the home's steep roof, state forestry officials said.

Metro Police urged anyone interested in playing in the snow to stay away until dangerous conditions lessen.

Forestry officials extended an extreme avalanche warning for Mary Jane Falls, Old Ski Town, Echo Trailhead and Cathedral Rock picnic area in the Spring Mountains until midnight Tuesday.

National Weather Service meteorologist Donald Maker said up to another foot of snow could fall in the Spring Mountains above 7,000 feet before the storm pattern fades tonight.

archive