No timeline to reopen roads after Hilary floods Mount Charleston

UPDATE: As of Wednesday, officials say they do not yet have a timeline to reopen Kyle Canyon Road to Mount Charleston, one of the heavily damaged roads on the mountain.

Clark County provided the following update:

"Crews from Clark County Public Works, the utilities and the incident management team (comprised of Clark County Fire Department personnel in partnership with Nevada Task Force 1 and the Mount Charleston Fire Protection District) continue to assess damage and make repairs. As you may know, at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, NV Energy restored power to the Rainbow subdivision in Kyle Canyon. The boiled water order is expected to remain in effect for now at as the Las Vegas Valley Water conducts testing of water that is flowing within the subdivision. Water and power remain out in the Echo and Cathedral Rock subdivisions and Old Town. A water tanker was moved into place today to serve as a potable filling station for residents. It is located near the entrance of the Rainbow Subdivision off SR 157. At this time the National Weather Service is reporting a 70 percent of afternoon thunderstorms on Thursday for our area, which could hamper and possibly exacerbate efforts, and Clark County and our partners in this effort are working to put plans in place to address the potential for additional rainfall and thunderstorm activity."

Meanwhile, Death Valley National Park will remain closed:

"National Park Service (NPS) and Caltrans road crews opened an exit lane on CA-190 by late on August 21. This provided an exit route for the 400 residents, employees, and travelers that sheltered in place for about 24 hours."

"All paved and unpaved roads in Death Valley have been damaged and are closed. Undercutting of pavement and pavement loss make travel conditions unsafe. Additionally four utility systems were compromised by debris that moved during the flash flooding, dislodging water and wastewater pipes and impacting a well. The full extent of the damage across the park will not be known for a period of weeks, as roads make overland travel challenging in order for park crews to identify additional storm damage impacts, however aerial surveys indicated extensive parkwide flooding impacts.

Park officials say the park will likely reopen in stages. It may be weeks before Furnace Creek and Stovepipe Wells open. Secondary roads in the park may take months to open. Utility systems also need to be stabilized prior to reopening."

UPDATE: Clark County Fire Chief John Steinbeck on Tuesday said along with rebuilding, support and logistical issues could take weeks or months to resolve following damaging floods at Mount Charleston this week.

On KNPR's State of Nevada, he told host Joe Schoenmann residents were cut off completely, some still asleep in their homes and now knowing what was happening. Vehicles were moved, and the water main was washed out.

"Water doesn't stop for anything," he said. "I look at that damage, it's not just your common road is washed away, let's go back and fix it and pave it. Where the road was, is now a river, right? And so until the water recedes enough, you can't even start on that portion of it. The water mains were underneath that … there's a there's a lot of work to be done. And estimates are just estimates right now. I can tell you that the water district, public works and Nevada power are all right at it. Even when the storm was still going, they were up there doing everything they could to get ahead of it."

The area remains blocked to visitors through at least Saturday, and Steinbeck said it "does not help" them at all to have others to be concerned about there.

"We're still trying to help the residents," he said.

Former Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani wasn't on the mountain when the storm hit, but owns a home in one of the affected neighborhoods.

"I'm up in the Echo … our main road into the subdivision is a river," she shared. "They had four foot of water flowing down there, which was insane. And two cars from one of my neighbor's houses that's on lower Echo, unfortunately, were two of the cars that were washed out of their driveway. So it's scary."

Tom Albright, the interim state climatologist explained the apparent paradox of worsening floods and drought in Southern Nevada:

"We also have local effects of an urban heat island, which is starting to get really widely known, but heat does a number of things. … One thing it does is it increases the thirstiness of the atmosphere. So even if we maintain the same levels of precipitation, we have a thirstier atmosphere. You can actually have areas that are increasingly drought prone, that have experienced maybe no average changes in precipitation, it's just simply drying because of that thirsty atmosphere. And the other really important thing about a warming air that I'd like to point out is that the capacity of the air to hold moisture. This is where you get these sort of paradoxical things where you hear people saying, 'Oh, there's going to be more drought.' But simultaneously, you hear people saying, 'There's going to be more extreme rainfall.' And at first, that might sound like a contradiction, but it really isn't. It's something that's become quite clear; you can just store a heck of a lot more water when you have warmer air. And the last thing I'll mention that's a really big factor is the massive heat content that we have in our oceans. Most of the additional warming the planet is experiencing from an increased greenhouse effect. Most of that's actually going into the oceans and a small change in temperature in the ocean represents a huge change in energy. That will serve to intensify tropical storms. That's something that's becoming a little bit more clear over time, as well."

UPDATE: At a joint press conference on Monday, officials said they were still working to assess the damage on Mount Charleston, but that four subdivisions had been affected by flooding.

Officials estimated about 150 to 200 people are on the mountain between visitors and residents. The full extent of damage is unknown, and utilities such as NV Energy and Las Vegas Valley Water District have been unable to access equipment due to the flood.

Residents were encouraged to stay in place until officials can reach them.

A spokesperson from Nevada DOT said about 200 feet of State Route 157 was damaged, and it's unknown how long the road will be closed. Their goal is to first divert the flow of water before opening one lane for access.

General Armstrong of the Nevada National Guard said 14 personnel are on scene, as well as five tactical vehicles they can use to go through flood zones.

Since he joined in 2008, a representative of the Clark County Fire Department said this was the worst flooding he had seen in the area, but that residents on Mount Charleston were prepared and have been through flooding, avalanches and wildfires in the past.

The U.S. Forest Service closure of the area will remain in place until at least Friday.

The press conference was held by Mt. Charleston Fire Protection District, Clark County Fire Department, Nevada National Guard, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, U.S. Forest Service, NV Energy and Las Vegas Valley Water District/Southern Nevada Water Authority.

ORIGINAL REPORT: Clark County officials on Monday morning said the Old Town and Rainbow subdivision areas of Mount Charleston are seeing "substantial" flooding as a result of Tropical Storm Hilary. ⁠
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Residents were sheltering in place, power is off and roads in the area are closed. The Nevada National Guard was going to assist, while a shelter for residents was being set up at the hotel on Kyle Canyon Road.⁠
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The U.S. Forest Service, meanwhile, has announced the closure of the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area through Monday.

⁠The Las Vegas Valley Water District issued a Boil Water Notice for users of the Kyle Canyon Water System as a result of the damage. In the notice, they said flooding caused a severe leak in the system, resulting in major reservoir tanks losing water pressure. Water should be boiled before using it for drinking, food preparation, brushing teeth, washing dishes and making ice "until further notice."

Death Valley National Park is closed due to active flooding, the park announced Sunday. The park received 1 inch of rain by midday Sunday, with unprecedented levels of rainfall predicted over Sunday night. California Highway 190 is also closed.

Furnace Creek Visitor Center received 1.04 inches of rain by 1:30 pm. The park might receive one to three more inches of rain Sunday night. For comparison, Furnace Creek’s average annual rainfall is 2.2 inches.

A flood watch remains in effect for portions of southern Nevada through the afternoon, as the remains of Tropical Storm Hilary continue to bring the potential of flash flooding.

Areas covered under the watch include Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Las Vegas Valley, Northeast Clark County, Sheep Range, Southern Clark County, Spring Mountains and Red Rock Canyon, along with Western Clark and Southern Nye County.

The chance for heavy rainfall continues past noon today, with skies gradually becoming partly cloudy. After that, a slight chance for showers and thunderstorms may linger through Friday, with temperatures returning to triple digits by Saturday.

Tropical Storm Hilary deluged arid parts of Mexico and then drenched Southern California from the coast to inland mountains and deserts, forcing rescuers to pull several people from swollen rivers.

More flooding and mudslides are expected today in that area on Monday, even as the storm weakens. And Southern California got another surprise Sunday afternoon as an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.1 hit about 80 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

It was felt widely and was followed by smaller aftershocks. There were no immediate reports of major damage or injury.

Guests: John Steinbeck, chief, Clark County Fire Department; Tom Albright, interim state climatologist, Nevada and associate professor of geography, UNR