Sunday storms shut down hundreds of miles of Nevada roads

By Kimberly Pierceall, Associated Press

Published Monday, Oct. 19, 2015 | 8:55 a.m.

Updated Monday, Oct. 19, 2015 | 3:48 p.m.

A weekend storm that got a boost from another that started in the Pacific Northwest pummeled Nevada's main roads, closing some for more than a hundred miles in each direction.

Almost 140 miles of U.S. Highway 95 linking Las Vegas and Reno was closed in both directions Sunday and then Monday first for flooding and then for a fire near Beatty at a radioactive waste site.

State Route 373 is closed from U.S. 95 to the California state line because of damage to the roadway, and State Route 374 is closed to Death Valley due to flooding, according to the Nye County Sheriff’s Office.

Traffic between Tonopah and Beatty has been limited to residents only, and damage on the California side of Bell Vista Road, which goes from Pahrump to just west of the California state line, closed the road to through traffic, the Sheriff’s Office said.

"As of today, it's finally starting to move east," toward northern Arizona and southern Utah, said Nathan Foster, a meteorological technician with the National Weather Service in Nevada. He said Sunday storm's represented quite a bit of energy in the atmosphere.

"It's unusual to have this amount of moisture in October," he said.

The slow-moving storm started late last week with heavy rains over Death Valley National Park and continued to hit other areas through the weekend.

So far, southern Nevada has had 1.15 inches of rain in October, according to recordings at McCarran International Airport, he said.

With two weeks left to go, the level is already the third-highest it's been for the month. Foster said the largest recorded amount of rain, 1.45 inches, fell in October 2005.

As of Monday afternoon, most of the U.S. 95 was reopened except a stretch south of Tonopah where U.S. 95 and U.S. 6 meet to north of Goldfield. State Route 267 between Death Valley National Park at the California state line and the U.S. 95 also remained closed, said Nevada Department of Transportation spokesman Tony Illia said.

The closure between State Route 160 in Pahrump to U.S. Route 6 in Tonopah, began Sunday morning after reports of flooding due to intense thunderstorms.

It was extended after the fire was reported Sunday evening, Illia said.

To the west of Las Vegas, the storm had also led to road closures on Charleston Blvd where it heads into Red Rock Canyon. Interstate 15 was closed temporarily near Apex.

No injuries were reported during the storms.

Sun reporter Pashtana Usufzy contributed to this story.