Clark County street sweeper at a N. Clayton St home in East Las Vegas, help clean up the mess that left home owner Carlos Rodriguez’s property flooded under knee deep water in some spots. Carlos also mentioned that the water also made its way into his home and swimming pool, which had to be fully drained of all the mud and debris, on Monday afternoon, August 15th, 2022.
Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Inclement weather in Las Vegas
When Serene Temple’s house and barn in Sunrise Manor flooded in August, she had no idea what she would be able to salvage.
When her family started to clean up the mess, they came to a painful realization: Much was destroyed.
Furniture, bedding, clothes and shoes had to be replaced. The floodwaters had touched many parts of the house, and the flooring was ruined.
Her house, which she had spent the past five years renovating, would have to be torn down if the cost to fix it exceeded $150,000.
Temple had no flood insurance because “these kind of storms don’t happen all the time,” she said. After all, Las Vegas averages less than 5 inches of rainfall annually.
The Nevada Division of Insurance earlier this month urged residents to consider purchasing flood insurance as changing weather patterns begin to pop up in the region.
“Changing weather patterns and an increase in severe weather events such as these simply can no longer be ignored and should be taken into consideration when evaluating your property’s flood risk and considering your flood insurance options,” said Liz Martins, public information officer for the Division of Insurance, in a statement.
This comes after Las Vegas experienced a summer full of flooded parking garages, casino ceilings leaking water and downpours that left Temple and other residents in Sunrise Manor pushing water out of their houses days after the rains.
Dr. Guo Yu, a hydrologist at the Desert Research Institute, recently studied flood patterns in the southwestern United States and concluded that the frequency of winter storms was bound to increase in the coming years.
While he believes the winter storms won’t be any more intense than those that come with Las Vegas’ summer monsoon season, Yu thinks the frequency will increase the floods occurring during those colder months.
According to the Division of Insurance, flooding is the nation’s most frequent and costly natural disaster and has affected 98% of the nation’s counties. The Federal Emergency Management Agency says a single inch of floodwater can cause up to $25,000 worth of damages in a typical house.
Flood damage is not covered under standard homeowners, commercial and renters’ insurance policies and must be purchased separately. It’s required for people who live in designated flood zones, but according to the Regional Flood Control District, Temple doesn’t live in one.
Flood insurance is available to all residents of Clark County and its incorporated cities, according to the Regional Flood Control District. Rates are much lower for those located outside of flood hazard areas — like Temple — but can be an unnecessary bill, said Mike Seifer, who owns an Allstate Insurance office in Las Vegas.
That’s part of the reason why Temple didn’t have flood insurance last summer.
Seifer doesn’t think it’s time to start sounding alarm bells just yet. He has lived in the Las Vegas Valley for over 40 years and said the flood levels recently haven’t been anything abnormal from what he’s seen in the past.
“We went through a spell of cold, and then we went through a spell of wet, but even then we didn’t get much flooding,” Seifer said.
He rarely gets inquiries about purchasing flood insurance, even after last year’s wet summer. Seifer said the development of flood channels — which direct rainwater to detention basins and other storage facilities to mitigate water buildup — is in large part to thank for this low demand of flood insurance.
But he won’t call himself an expert when it comes to the future of flooding. There’s always a possibility that flooding could worsen, and residents should decide whether the extra cost will be worth the protection, according to Seifer.
“I’m not Nostradamus, I can’t predict the future,” Seifer said. “I’m talking past (so) that’s up to you to heed it.”
