norman
country-financial
March 28, 2024 10:44 pm
Your hometown Newspaper since 1987.
Search
Close this search box.

Rains Bring Flood Water From Lincoln County

Flood waters continue to rise under the I-15 bridge at Glendale on Thursday afternoon. Photo by John Robison

By Mike Donahue

Moapa Valley Progress

The Moapa Valley received significant rainfall last week. The weather station at the Warm Springs Wildlife Refuge reported measuring 3.6 inches of rainfall from December 20-22. In the same time period, the Overton Power District weather station measured 2.52 inches of precipitation.

The rain caused localized flooding in areas where washes customarily have run over the roadways.

Nevada Department of Transportation crews closed the State Highway just south of downtown Overton on Wednesday morning because water from the Overton Wash began running over the road.

The Valley of Fire Road also was closed on Wednesday from east of the I-15 all the way to State Route 169 due to widespread road flooding.

Water from washes to the west of Logandale and Overton also brought water into streets and yards of residents in that part of town.

Cooper Street in Overton remained closed on Monday, December 27 after a minor flood from the Muddy River last week continued flowing over the road.

Heavy rains and runoff down the Meadow Valley Wash last week were responsible for the flooding that inundated the Cooper Crossing and other parts of Moapa Valley.

The Meadow Valley Wash drains thousands of acres located many miles north of Moapa Valley in eastern Lincoln County. The Meadow Valley Wash flows into the Muddy River at Glendale.

The Meadow Valley Wash flood waters peaked in Caliente, Nevada on Wednesday evening at a flow of 1,680 cubic feet per second (cfs), according to a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) website. The average median flow at that point and time is only around 6 cfs.

After flooding Cooper Street at Cooper Crossing, during the night Dec. 23, the Muddy River began to recede at about 5:45 a.m. Photo by Mike Donahue

That spike in flood flow arrived in Moapa about 24 hours later. River flow at the Glendale gauge was recorded last Thursday night at about 22.3 feet or approximately nine feet over flood stage, according to USGS website. And while the Muddy was back to about seven feet by Saturday, Christmas Day, it had climbed back over 10 feet by Monday.

The Meadow Valley Wash flooded over the fields and yards of some Moapa residents in the area of E. Isola Drive. But there were no reports of damage to homes in the area.

The rushing water began to swamp Cooper Street in Overton on Thursday evening and Clark County Public Works closed the road. The water eventually climbed high over flood stage in the shallow dip in the Overton road by early Friday morning, Christmas Eve, before gradually beginning to recede.

Running without check into Moapa Valley, the high water could have caused severe damage in parts of Logandale and Overton but the Moapa Valley Irrigation Company (MVIC) diverted a major portion of the early flow into Bowman Reservoir.

The local Clark County Emergency Management team credits MVIC with preventing a more damaging flood event, according to Victoria Coston, senior office specialist, a member of the Clark County Emergency Management Team.

“The company diverted a lot of the early flow, which really helped cut down the amount of water that ran through Moapa Valley,” Coston said. “Once the reservoir was full, however, the flooding river was allowed to continue through Overton.

“The water really started building up on Cooper at about 5:50 p.m. Thursday. It continued through the night cresting in the dark on Christmas Eve.”

In what may turn out to be a practice run for later this week when more rain is forecast to slam Southern Nevada, the local emergency management team pulled out all the stops last week in preparing for the possibility of a flood.

Volunteer firefighters from the Overton Station visited homes all along Cooper Street to alert residents about the flood possibility. They handed out an alert that stated the Muddy “will come out of the banks at Cooper Crossing and it is unknown how high the river will rise before it peaks at that location.”

A voluntary evacuation site was set up at the Moapa Valley High School and residents who live in low areas were urged to make use of the facilities if necessary. Few people expressed concern, however and no one used the evacuation site.

Several residents who visited the Cooper Crossing on Thursday night said they had been through the flooding that hit in 2005 when the Muddy crested at 27.5 feet in Glendale and they weren’t worried with the high water mark this year expected to be less than 23 feet.

The National Weather Service was predicting rain throughout today and into Thursday, with flooding possible should it turn into a major event.

Print This Article:

Share This Article:

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Screen Shot 2023-02-05 at 10.55.46 PM
2-21-2024-fullpagefair
4 Youth Service WEB
2-28-2024 WEB Hole Foods St Patricks
No data was found
2023 WEB BANNER 2 DEFAULT AD whitneyswater
Mesquite Works Web Ad 10-2020
Scroll to Top
Receive the latest news

Subscribe To Our Weekly Newsletter

Get notified about new articles