LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — There are many major residential housing construction projects underway across the valley. And with all that urban development changing the landscape, regional flooding can occur.
KTNV talked with the Regional Flood Control District about how they are addressing flooding concerns amid our valley's growing population .
"The population here, particularly in the Las Vegas Valley has doubled every decade since really about 1950. Sometimes development can get out ahead of you if they are building in an area that doesn't have protection yet. Again, if they do that then it's on them to design and construct whatever they need to build to protect their development," explained GM/Chief Engineer Steve Parrish.
The National Weather Service explains that our desert landscape isn't that water absorbent.
As heavy monsoon rains fall, all that water is going to travel to the lowest point making roaring rivers of our roadways like we witnessed earlier this week in the southwest valley.
The district already has a project underway there.
Parrish said, "We're focusing on existing areas that need protection, so we're going to prioritize those a little bit higher."
While mother nature can't be controlled, Monday's southwest valley flooding already has a solution underway.
"There's a detention basin right at the Silverado Ranch and Decatur intersection that is under construction right now. In reality, if three months from now what we saw a couple of days ago with the rain storm, that water would've just gone right under Decatur into that basin and wouldn't have had an impact to that intersection," Parrish said.
