Thunderstorms hit parts of valley

Friday, July 29, 2005 | 9:57 a.m.

Two strangers pulled a Henderson nanny and a 2-year-old girl from a car swamped on Sunset Road near Annie Oakley Drive Thursday as thunderstorms dumped heavy rain on the Las Vegas Valley.

Kim Foht said floodwaters suddenly poured into her 1996 Acura Integra shortly before 6 p.m. as she drove east in the middle lane of Sunset.

National Weather Service forecaster Andy Gorelow confirmed that 0.80 of an inch of rain had fallen in Green Valley, slowing rush hour traffic to a crawl and sending muddy waters coursing through concrete flood control channels and down urban streets.

"I didn't see any water on the road, and suddenly it was there. It just kept getting higher and higher," Foht said.

The water backed up after a storm drain became either plugged with debris or swamped with floodwaters from the deluge, Henderson Police officers on the scene said.

Foht said she watched as 6 inches of water crept toward her 2-year-old charge, strapped into her car seat in the backseat.

A Terrible Herbst Lube & Oil employee across the street and a passing motorist saw the woman's car begin to float and rescued her.

"I had to reach over the passenger seat and pull her out," Foht said of the toddler, who sipped on a bright red juice drink from a covered cup.

"She screamed, 'Water!' and 'Dirty!' " Foht said of the child, whose name she declined to reveal. "She's mad that the car is dirty."

Her blue jeans soaked to the knee, Foht said, "And I never got the chance to thank the men who rescued me."

The fierce storms that pounded the valley starting at 5 p.m. flooded intersections in the northeast valley such as Lake Mead Boulevard and Civic Center Drive where 0.50 of an inch of rain fell, Gorelow said.

The Weather Service issued an urban and small stream flood advisory from 5:23 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. for the valley because the rain was so intense in some spots, Gorelow said.

But only a trace of rain fell at McCarran International Airport, where the Weather Service records official weather reports for Las Vegas.

Thursday's rain was the first of what could be a week of thunderstorms, according to forecasters.

During the storm there were reports Thursday of trees down on Cabana Drive near Flamingo Road and Nellis Boulevard. Some hail was also reported in the northwest valley.

Lightning caused a power outage at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and sparked another wildfire in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

Lightning struck a power line near the Nevada Test Site about 1:15 p.m., stranding 57 miners, technicians and scientists nearly 1,000 feet below ground in a tunnel complex called U1a, where subcritical nuclear weapons experiments are conducted, said Darwin Morgan, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration.

The tunnel complex is mined at the base of a vertical shaft 960 feet beneath the surface. The complex is equipped with refuges, and none of those trapped until 2 p.m. when the power was restored were in danger, Morgan said.

A dry thunderstorm in the Spring Mountains sparked another wildland fire Thursday.

The 25-acre Diamond fire sent a black cloud of smoke into the valley's skies west of Las Vegas about 2:30 p.m. as flames burned on Blue Diamond Hill.

Seven engines, two water tenders, two single-engine tankers and two hand crews responded to the blaze burning on the north side of the hill, Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Kirsten Cannon said.

At first strong, gusty winds kept the air tankers on the ground, Cannon said, but once the storm cells had moved away from the area the tankers spread red fire retardant around the blaze, stopping it from spreading into homes near Summerlin.

There were no evacuations, Cannon said and no roads were closed because of the fire.