Flash floods return to pummel Las Vegas hotspots

Planet Hollywood and Caesars Forum were both severely impacted.

Las Vegas was hit with a fresh flash flood on Thursday, only two weeks after casinos and hotels in the tourist hotspot were flooded with torrential rainfall. Sin City and its casinos aren’t well equipped to deal with flash floods, as social media videos of Thursday night can attest to.

A fortnight ago, viral footage captured water pouring from holes in the ceiling at Planet Hollywood Casino (located on Las Vegas Boulevard). New footage from Twitter user Sean Sable showed water pummeling onto the Planet’s blackjack tables. Sable wrote: “You’re not going to believe this, but I’m not sure if it’s raining more inside @PHVegas or outside.”

The flooding also interrupted Def Con 2022, an annual hackers convention, being held at Caesars Forum in Paradise, Nevada. The company has already been affected by the torrential weather, with flood waters reaching Caesars Palace’s ceilings on July 29.

Airports were once again impacted: according to the weather service, the Harry Reid International Airport in Paradise picked up at least 0.58 inches of rainfall. This brings the Nevadan monsoon rainfall season to 1.28 inches of rainfall in total.

The weather service had earlier issued a flood advisory for the Las Vegas Valley until 12:15AM local time. It warned of hazards including heavy rain, nuisance flooding, frequent lightning and gusty winds, adding that drivers should “never attempt to drive through flood waters.”

Simon Jowitt, an economic geologist and professor at the University of Las Vegas, commented that flash floods were rare, but Nevadans were still forewarned to anticipate monsoon season from July to September.

Jowitt says, “We’ve got good drainage systems but sometimes the water just overloads them. The other thing is that we don’t often get rain so it’s hard to check whether roofs and the like are actually waterproof.”

Robert Collins

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