Overton begins huge cleanup

Stephen Curran

Friday, Jan. 14, 2005 | 10:48 a.m.

OVERTON -- Those who live in this small town tucked in northeast Clark County are proud of the fact few residents lock their doors, and by Thursday afternoon the property lines that once divided homes in its low-lying Stringtown neighborhood appeared almost non-existent.

Homeowners returned to the neighborhood, an even mix of older homes and more upscale new construction, about 9 a.m. Thursday to survey the damage their property suffered when the Muddy River ripped through many of the structures earlier this week.

The floodwaters, which devastated some homes while sparing others in the neighborhood, began receding Wednesday evening, as the once waste-deep water gave way to a thick, smelly mud that coated the streets in this town of about 4,000 people that sits about 65 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

Those neighbors whose homes were unaffected, some in trucks or sport utility vehicles, others on foot, walked freely from house to house, offering help and food to their fellow residents.

Among the houses most abuzz with volunteers and family members was the tidy brick home of John and Dorothy Fetherston, a couple in their late 70s who stayed with relatives nearby while their daughter Judy Seely spearheaded the effort to clean and rehabilitate the house where she grew up.

The 46-year-old mother of seven, whose own home was not damaged in the flood, said carpet and sheetrock would need to be replaced, but that the structure and many of her parents' most prized belongings were salvageable.

"It's mostly the carpets that were damaged," she said as her teenage son and daughter ran an industrial vacuum cleaner.

Homeowner Mike Hanley, who first spoke with the Sun shortly after he and his three children had finished positioning sandbags outside the small white house on Cooper Street he bought late last year, returned Thursday morning after spending the night at the LDS stake center in nearby Logandale.

The sandbags' effectiveness was difficult to gauge as nearly everything in the home was damaged beyond repair. Hanley, who did not have flood insurance, spoke relatively nonchalantly about his lost furniture, appliances and even his big screen TV.

The most painful loss, he said, was his collection of "cowboy art," a series of signed and numbered scenic prints -- by an artist who Hanley said has since gone blind. The ruined art was in a damp poster tube that the water had sealed shut.

"When you raise kids, you don't have $3,000 leather sofas," he said of his furniture. "But those (the prints) were about $3,000."

About 12 volunteers from his nearby Mormon church helped the sheetmetal worker and single father clean his home Thursday afternoon.

Stringtown homeowners Kim Delgadillo and Tanya Robinson, whose homes were not damaged, were among the scores of residents who said the widespread flooding could have been prevented if Clark County commissioners voted to clear the Muddy River channel that runs several hundred feet behind their homes.

Robinson's next door neighbors, Mike and Patty Gonzales, were among the Overton residents who suffered extensive damage.

The issue, Delgadillo said, had "been on the town board agenda countless times" but had not been resolved more than 20 years after members of the Clark County Regional Flood Control District had voted to clear and expand the channel.

Gov. Kenny Guinn, who arrived by airplane Thursday at the small Perkins Field airport in Logandale, would not say whether or not he would push commissioners to act more quickly but said officials from the state Division of Emergency Services would visit the town to assess the damage Tuesday.

"We will work with the county to address it (the flooding)," he said. "We'll have to wait to see what happens."

The state officials' visit is expected to be a preliminary step to determine if the flooded areas qualify for federal funding, George Togliatti, the state Public Safety Director, said.

Togliatti, who arrived separately, and Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt, who flew in with the governor, were part of Guinn's entourage touring the flooded neighborhoods.

Guinn wore a green military-style bomber jacket during his a brief tour of Cooper Street and walked to a portion of the street where water still raged that afternoon.

He stopped to speak to longtime Overton resident Lori Markosek, a teaching assistant who helped her daughter and son-in-law clean their home. Markosek, whose father worked for Guinn at a nearby high school, praised state and federal efforts in previous floods.

"They've always gotten the assistance they needed," she said.

But residents Bud Webber and Peter Geng wanted more immediate answers from the governor.

The two approached Guinn as he finished a television interview near the flooding. Webber offered the governor a ride on his tractor to survey the damage on his 20-acre property.

Guinn, who was wearing leather loafers, politely declined before his motorcade left the neighborhood.

Webber, who on Wednesday was able to move his horses to higher ground as fast-moving floodwaters rushed past his home, had harsh words for county and state government officials.

"I'm sick of them studying" how to design improvements to the channel, he said. "They've been studying for 20 years. They say they'll help but maybe he (Guinn) is like the rest of the county (commissioners). You know they're lying when their lips are moving."

Gonzales, whose music teacher, Delgadillo, had helped clean his house, said he simply did not understand why the area where his home sits would have flooded so easily.

Gonzales and others said they suspected the reason the channel had not been widened was that the county was reluctant to buy the privately owned land near the river.

"The Muddy River is right here," he said, pointing about 500 yards away. "The county was going to do it but the landowners won't sell. But they don't have to live here. They live in the (larger) houses on the hill."