Search for man continues

Metro Police returned to an eastern Las Vegas wash at 5 a.m. today to continue searching for a man authorities believe was swept away by floodwaters near Boulder Highway during Monday's thunderstorm.

Search and Rescue team members, six K-9 handlers and their dogs, and numerous volunteers were expected to continue combing the wash throughout the morning. As of 8 a.m. they had yet to uncover any trace of the man, said Lt. Rick Alba, department spokesman.

"We're taking a second look at the wash to make absolutely sure," Alba said. "The decision was made last night to go back out this morning on foot. The helicopters flew over the area Wednesday and found nothing."

The man authorities are searching for is believed to have been inside a blue BMW that was swept off Boulder Highway at Karen Avenue and into the nearby wash about 2 a.m. Monday as the valley was deluged with an estimated 2 inches of rain.

The raging wash was estimated to have been as deep as 14 feet at the height of the flooding, authorities said.

Bystanders were able to rescue another motorist from a white Mustang caught in the same swift-moving wash, but found the BMW empty more than a mile downstream, Clark County Fire Department spokesman Steve La-Sky said.

"Transients were taking shelter under an underpass and reported seeing the BMW float by and the man, either ahead of it or behind it," La-Sky said. "They said he wasn't screaming for help. They described him as calm."

Firefighters searched the area but found no one.

Metro, meanwhile, ran the BMW's New York license plate number through its computer system and tracked down a family on the East Coast who identified the man as staying with relatives in Clark County.

"The person's relatives in Henderson have since filed a missing persons report," Alba said.

Authorities have not released the missing man's identity.

"Metro's got a tough job ahead of them," La-Sky said. "Floodwaters like we had on Monday can re-contour the landscape. Anyone or anything that was in there by now could be buried under 6 feet of silt."

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