Comment Monsoon rain swept through downtown Las Vegas Thursday night, pelting Strip casino carpets through leaky roofs and rushing through a parking garage that looked more like rapids. Videos shared on social media showed rainwater cascading from a video board and covering the sports betting floor at Circa Casino and Resort. Lights dripping brightly at Caesars Palace. Planet Hollywood is getting wet. and floods spilling onto the garage floor at the Linq Hotel. A player at the Fremont Hotel and Casino continued to play right through the deluge. The Weather Service in Las Vegas warned of wind gusts approaching 70 mph, urging Twitter followers to “take shelter now!” Las Vegas Fire and Rescue tweeted that it responded to 330 calls for service, mostly weather-related, and rescued seven people in rushing water. Multiple intersections were flooded. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that more than 7,000 customers were experiencing power outages after 10 p.m. Water poured into casinos and flooded streets after monsoon rain in Las Vegas on July 28. (Video: Storyful) Video I got from an employee working near the sports book at Circa. Cleaning up after the flood that just happened. You certainly don’t see this every day. @8NewsNow #8NN Courtesy: Dan Miller pic.twitter.com/CxmjHH78Rn — Victoria Saha (@VictoriaSaha) July 29, 2022 Instead of seeping into the desert soil, stormwater tends to pool in Las Vegas, meaning that relatively little rainfall can lead to flooding. Storms brought on by the monsoons prompted the National Weather Service to issue severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings Thursday night. Radar showed a narrow but intense storm track sweeping into Vegas around 8:30 p.m. local time from the north. Hater’s Guide to Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport received 0.32 inches of rain — about the average amount for the entire month of July — while “some pockets of the city received more than an inch,” the Weather Service wrote. Thursday marked the city’s second night of monsoon storms, with more expected in the southwest, according to the National Weather Service. The summer in Nevada has been characterized by drought. Water levels in Lake Mead have reached their lowest point since 1937, according to NASA, exposing three sets of human remains in the reservoir since May. ‘Where There’s Bodies, There’s Treasure’: A Hunt As Lake Mead Shrinks Across the country, devastating flooding in eastern Kentucky has killed at least 16 people since Wednesday. Historic rainfall around St. Louis on Tuesday led to flash flooding that killed one person. Both rainfall events are considered 1 in 1,000 year rainfall events.
