MT. CHARLESTON, Nev. (KTNV) — Back in August, when Southern Nevada faced Tropical Storm Hilary hit, the Las Vegas Valley missed damage—but our friends up in Mount Charleston and Lee Canyon have spent months cleaning up.
In an exclusive story, we shows you how the community is rebuilding the mountain.
JASON DOUGLAS, ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF: Its part of Vegas but its the town of Mt. Charleston and we are close nit up here.
For locals, the small mountain town of 396 people is a destination for a weekend getaway. But, for residents its a quiet wooded paradise 40 miles outside of Vegas.
JASON DOUGLAS, ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF: We feel responsible for our members up here that’s why when things like this happen we know the people down the street we know the we know the people who live on the other streets.
The town knows no stranger—except for mother nature.
JASON DOUGLAS, ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF: We did have reports of a substantial rainfall...we hear that a lot over here obviously its a mountainous area. Sometimes we get a lot sometimes we get nothing. That night we actually had a call of a power outage that night that had blown over a lot of folks don’t realize the the strength of wind up in this canyon and Lee Canyon.
Tropical Storm Hilary officially made her appearance on August 21, 2023.
JASON DOUGLAS, ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF: Around 1:45 a.m. we got a call from a metro officer who does patrol here in the area during night hours. He let us know there was some water flowing over the bridge which is not usual for that area.
Douglas continued, sharing with us a more precise timeline of early damage.
JASON DOUGLAS, ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF: That meant we had a lot of water flowing if we had water over the bridge. I came up that road at two in the morning within the hour-and-a-half, two hours the whole road started to collapse.
In the video, you’ll see the remnants of the rock work and then you’ll see where the water tore through and destroyed it all.
TAYLOR TIMS, RECREATION MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST: It was an unprecedented event, it was a 1,000 year flood.
We then took at a look at one of Mt. Charleston's most popular hiking trails, Mary Jane Falls.
Rangers tell me it'll take 2-5 years before this trail can reopen.
But to understand how all of this happened, we had to go all the way to the top.
The storm dropped 12 inches of water—rushing down the mountain with force, velocity, and speed, taking with her trees, gravel, and critical resources.
RAY JOHNSON, US FOREST SERVICE FIRE PREVENTION OFFICER: Some of the folks living up here said they could see seven waterfalls running off these cliffs going into this basin.
JASON DOUGLAS, ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF: They are still doing assessments to see if the building is even repairable — still a work in progress.
The impact of Hilary is still being felt months later and will continue to be felt for years to come.
Douglas explains their volunteer engine bay was completely destroyed by the floods.
JASON DOUGLAS, ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF: So everything back there was destroyed it probably took the most damage up on this mountain believe it or not.
To even get inside, crews had to get creative.
JASON DOUGLAS, ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF: The engine bay—our doors were ripped off from the flood in the back as well as about a foot and a foot and a half of mud in the whole place and it blew the whole front doors off...our front building has had some work on it and we were hoping to get this done before winter but it doesn’t look like that will be possible.
The winter conditions are complicating things on the hiking trail as well. Where rangers Ray Johnson and Taylor say the lower the temperatures get, the more progress slows down.
TAYLOR TIMS: Right now we're working with what we have which is a crew of about 13 in recreation alone and then a a few others will join us and obviously our fire crews have been a big help as well we’ve even been calling people from different districts to get the work done.
RAY JOHNSON: When we have to do a reroute to a trail we have to go through and survey that we’re not damaging the actual environment or anything like that we have to do a full analysis before we can even begin the work.
The costs of repairs ranges upwards of $25 million just on the trails alone.
The U.S. Forest Service is now looking for local, state, and federal funding to help cover the costs of the damage.
TAYLOR TIMS: Some of our engineers that have gone up here and have helped us access all of the areas have quoted anywhere from a million or even more than a million to repair per mile of trail.
JASON DOUGLAS, ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF: They are still doing assessments to see if the building is even repairable — still a work in progress.
As fall turns to winter on the mountain and the revival of this little town is on the horizon, residents are showing their sign of hope and appreciation for the local heroes, who are rebuilding the mountain one sediment at a time.
