Similar situation is unlikely in Vegas

Stephen Curran

Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005 | 11:12 a.m.

About the only thing the Gulf Coast and Southern Nevada have in common is a regular influx of tourists, the head of Clark County's Emergency Management department said.

Given those differences a full-scale evacuation of the visitor-heavy Strip is unlikely, even as the Las Vegas Valley remains at risk for terrorist attacks and its own natural disasters, Jim O'Brien, county emergency manager, said.

"This is apples and oranges. When you're sitting in a bathtub surrounded by water that's one incident, but when you're in the desert it's another," he said referring to the difference between New Orleans and Las Vegas. "It would be difficult for me to see circumstances that would cause an evacuation of the valley. The conditions here are not like living on the coast."

Instead, O'Brien said, emergency personnel who could be charged with evacuating the Strip would likely focus on housing displaced residents and tourists in a network of shelters scattered throughout the valley.

Should a large-scale disaster occur, area resorts, each of which have their own security departments, would team up with county emergency personnel and police to evacuate or gather anyone stuck here, Erika Yowell, a spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said.

Local shelters would give personnel a leg-up in keeping tabs on people who would otherwise be at risk in the aftermath of a large-scale disaster, an option not available to rescuers in New Orleans who had no choice but to try to evacuate that city, O'Brien said.

"If there's a cloud of toxic chemicals, it would make no sense to put people out into harm's way," O'Brien said.

Ultimately, however, it boils down to convincing residents of imminent danger, a challenge for Gulf Coast officials in days leading to the hurricane. Too often, O'Brien said, people do not heed warnings of impending danger, leaving emergency workers frustrated or facing potentially risky rescues after the disaster.

"We can put the word out but as far as what people do, their behavior, they can choose to follow our advice or not follow it," O'Brien said. "You can tell people there's shelter available and here's where it is, but whether they choose to go that's another thing."