By Mike Donahue
Moapa Valley Progress
Tyson Leavitt, his wife Annie and their three girls, 6-year-old Lucy, Abby, 4, and baby Phoebe are Overton residents.
They have ties to Moapa Valley that go back 100 plus years and Tyson’s parents, Rod and Camille Leavitt own Wheeler’s Electric Inc., a well-known and reputable local business. Tyson works for his dad as an apprentice or journeyman electrician.
While Tyson and Annie could be considered a representative Nevada family from anywhere in the state, Tyson recently did something I think typifies what rural living is all about – integrity, doing the right thing and neighbor helping neighbor.
It happened around Christmas last month.
We are experiencing one of the wettest winter seasons we’ve ever had.
A Southern Nevada Water Authority spokesman estimates more than 450 million gallons of water has poured into Lake Mead during the latest rainstorms which equates to about 1,400-acre feet or enough water to supply more than 1,000 households for a year.
It has raised the lake level a whopping 2/10ths of inch, hardly a dent but surely a beginning.
The rains are more than welcome. However, as is often the case, nature has a balance and with everything good there is frequently something not so good.
The soaking rains have been wonderful for our rural fields and gardens, planted or not. Steady, heavy storms help wash away salts and other undesirable elements that accumulate in the land from our irrigation water.
On the other hand, when heavy rain falls in the desert it almost always creates dangerous and damaging flooding that can destroy property and threaten lives.
The recent rains that have been so beneficial to Lake Mead, the springs that supply Moapa Valley water and with Southern Nevada in general also caused devastation in Mesquite, Littlefield and Beaver Dam where several houses were completely washed away and many others were condemned, ruined by the rains and floods.
Although Moapa Valley escaped the full destructive force of the recent storms, a couple of roads in the area were flooded creating a dangerous situation for motorists.
The evening of Dec. 22, Orville and Marilyn Cattoor, both in their 70s, became trapped in a torrent of flood water raging across Moapa Valley Boulevard between the Lost City Museum and Robins Nest Mobile Home Park.
Now Tyson, who was driving in the area at the time, knew that the truck in which the Cattoors were trapped had become stuck in the flood waters on the road. Because he believed a nearby Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) crew was going to pull it out, however, he drove home.
The crew had the equipment and one would think the moral obligation to help the Cattoors. Nevertheless, the senior couple was left to their own devices and the cab of their little pickup was soon flooded by mud and water.
The actions, or non-actions if you will, by the NDOT crew is under scrutiny so I won’t comment further – at least until NDOT spokesman Scott Magurder gives me the department’s side of the story.
Anyway, after some time at home, Tyson began to worry about the Cattoor’s pickup although he didn’t know the couple, had no idea they were senior citizens and actually believed NDOT had offered help.
It weighed so heavy on him that he went back to check that the truck had been pulled from the flood. He was astonished to see the pickup still in the road, still in the water. To make matters worse, surging water was streaming over the hood of the truck and there were still people inside.
He immediately got some tow straps and with Orville’s brother Dave Cattoor, who had been summoned via cell phone, dove into the flood waters and mud to hook up the straps and pull that truck out.
Tyson’s concern for the then unknown people stuck in the flood is more than commendable and praiseworthy.
We’d like to think anyone would have done the same, but let’s not be so naïve to bet our lives on it. As far as I’m concerned, Tyson’s integrity and efforts to provide assistance should be called heroic.
He’s the type of rural neighbor we’d all like to be and, more importantly, like to have.
“Rural Rants” is a column about rural living and the people who live here. It appears the first and third Wednesday of the month. Your comments and input are important and will be appreciated. Contact me via email at mouse@mvdsl.com
