Heavy rain, flooding and hail hit parts of the Las Vegas valley on Friday, turning streets into fast-moving runoff and forcing responders into multiple rescues. By midafternoon, the storm had already snarled traffic, cut power to thousands of customers and slowed flights at Harry Reid International Airport.
The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the east Las Vegas valley until 1:45 p.m., citing public reports of hail and torrential rainfall. Heavy flooding was seen on Eastern Avenue north and south of Interstate 11/U.S. 95, while a flash flood warning remained in effect until 3:45 p.m.
That warning mattered because the impacts were still shifting hour by hour. At around 1 p.m., three swift water rescues were reported in Henderson, and by 1:40 p.m. NV Energy said more than 4,000 customers were without power, with the majority in the central valley. By about 2:15 p.m., that number had fallen to just over 2,000, showing how quickly the storm was changing conditions across the valley even as alerts stayed in place.
Harry Reid International Airport also instituted a ground stop because of lightning through at least 3 p.m., adding another layer of disruption to a day already marked by flooding and outages. The weather event was still unfolding when those numbers changed, and that is the clearest sign that the valley was dealing with a live emergency rather than a passing downpour.
News 3 said it had reached out to other local jurisdictions for information on the rescues and flooding. The unanswered question is how many people were involved in the Henderson rescues and whether anyone was injured, but the immediate picture was already clear: Friday’s storm hit fast, hit hard and kept affecting the Las Vegas valley well after the first warnings were posted.
