Storms dump record rain in Vegas; 2-day total broke record for entire month
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Two days of rain broke Las Vegas' record for the entire month of October, overwhelming flood channels, swamping roadways and knocking out power.
Firefighters rescued several motorists from stalled vehicles Tuesday after they ignored warnings and tried to ford flooded intersections. Police and the Nevada Highway Patrol reported numerous crashes, including a parkway crash that critically injured one person.
The storm dropped 2.39 centimetres of rain Tuesday at McCarran International Airport, breaking a record of 1.14 cm for the same date set in 1962. The 3.61 cm of rain that fell Monday and Tuesday swamped the previous record of 3.10 cm for the entire month of October, set in 1992.
"In those two days, we got enough rain to break our record for the month," said Andy Bailey, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Las Vegas. "Traditionally, October is a pretty dry month."
Clearing skies were forecast for Wednesday.
Leaks forced the closure of part of the new Clark County courthouse in downtown Las Vegas and some stores at a mall in Henderson.
In Southern California, the first major rainstorm of the fall left five people dead in road accidents beginning Monday. The rain slowly moved out of the region late Tuesday.
Officials blamed Las Vegas flooding on debris clogging intakes to some of the region's network of 69 retention basins and 640 kilometres of channels, and said other projects were being built to protect neighbourhoods that flooded Tuesday.
