Monday, July 12, 1999 | 11:17 a.m.
Residents of a neighborhood near Charleston and Lamb boulevards are wondering how they are going to recover from Thursday's thunderstorm, which left many of their homes ravaged by flash flooding with no flood insurance to help pay for repairs.
No one living in the 1400 block of Miner Way near Olive Street had flood insurance, because the area isn't considered a flood zone, nine-year residents Tracy and Robert Dallenbach said. Their home was filled with almost 2 feet of flood water Thursday, ruining carpets, furniture and clothing and forcing several families to seek living arrangements elsewhere.
"It says right on the mortgage 'No flood insurance needed,' " Tracy Dallenbach said.
In fact, many desert dwellers don't see the need for flood insurance. Only about 12,300 homeowners have flood insurance in Nevada, spokeswoman for Western Insurance Information Stephanie Saari said.
Flood insurance is offered through the federal government, but private insurance companies help obtain it, Saari said. It's required for homeowners living in flood zones. Others may buy it as well, and the rates are based on the risk of flooding determined in the area.
About 960 flood insurance claims have been paid in Nevada since the federal government took over the program in 1973, Saari said. The average premium for flood insurance is $411 a year.
No flood coverage, no help
The Dallenbachs looked numb as they pointed out the damage done to their possessions. Insurance adjusters have been out to the neighborhood, they said, and residents have all heard the same story: no flood coverage, no reimbursement for flood-related damages.
"We've been denied flood insurance. We're all (out of luck). It's amazing," Tracy Dallenbach said.
The Dallenbachs' neighbors, Sharon and Don Hamilton, will have to spend their retirement savings on repairing their home, as they didn't have flood coverage and Farmer's Insurance Group denied their claim.
"After paying premiums since 1972 I've put in maybe one claim on my house. You'd think they'd do something to help out," Sharon Hamilton said.
The two were selling their home to move to Oklahoma for retirement and were packed when it started to rain Thursday. Now they can't move until the house is repaired and sold and the Hamiltons fear they won't find a buyer.
"I don't know how much all of this is going to cost," said Sharon Hamilton, who retired from her 31 year teaching job with the Clark County School District Friday. "It'll put us in a financial bind."
The Dallenbachs, like many of their neighbors, aren't sure how they will pay for repairs to their home and belongings, and are hoping the Federal Emergency Management Agency will grant federal aid to the county.
"We're lucky to make it from payday to payday," Tracy Dallenbach said. "We lost so much."
Federal assistance?
FEMA and the Small Business Administration are coming to Las Vegas Monday to assess the damage, director of Clark County Emergency Management Robert Andrews said. The Clark County Commission took the first step in paving the way for federal disaster relief by declaring a state of emergency for the county and Las Vegas at a special meeting Friday.
The local team assessing the destruction caused by Thursday's thunderstorms and flooding will brief federal officials on preliminary damage estimates this afternoon at the Clark County Government building, Andrews said.
Damage to public property is already estimated at $7 million and private property damage is unknown, Andrews said. Overall total damages are expected to exceed local and state capabilities.
"We want to tap every source of assistance for our (residents) but we won't know what that will be" until FEMA and the SBA are finished with their field assessments, Andrews said.
Nevada has up to $4.5 million in a state emergency fund, created during this year's Legislature, but it only covers public property, Andrews said.
Sharon Hamilton can't imagine that FEMA could deny the county federal assistance, since so many residents not covered by flood insurance lost homes and possessions.
"If we don't qualify, that doesn't seem right," she said, gesturing to piles of water damaged belongings. "It would be nice to get some assistance."
Changing the drainage
The Dallenbachs believe the county should take some responsibility for the flooding in their neighborhood. County officials three years ago approved a change in a drainage channel behind their street that includes a sharp bend that was the root of the neighbors' problem Thursday.
"None of this would have happened if (the county) had listened to us and not put the channel in," Tracy Dallenbach said.
The drainage channel runs north to south behind Home Depot on Charleston Boulevard, then makes a 90 degree left turn and runs under Lamb Boulevard, Robert Dallenbach said.
Debris in the channel Thursday caused the runoff to build up against the block wall behind Miner Way and the pressure eventually collapsed the wall allowing water, mud and debris to flow through the neighborhood unchecked, Tracy Dallenbach said.
The Hamiltons, like the Dallenbachs, blame the flooding on the rerouting of the drainage ditch behind their house so that Home Depot could be built on Charleston.
"We think this was preventable," Don Hamilton said. "It has never flooded like this before."
Bobby Shelton, spokesman for Clark County Public Works, thinks the amount of rainfall contributed to the flooding along Miner Way, not the design of the drainage channel.
"I don't think the designers would have put anything in there that wasn't going to work," Shelton said. "We had an awful lot of rain there real quick."
Cause aside, when residents returned to their homes after the water receded, many found that the extensive damage wasn't covered by their homeowners' policies, and they are just coming to terms with that.
"Since my mother died in 1980, this is the most traumatic event I've experienced," Don Hamilton said.
Still neighbors are banding together and helping each other with the cleanup.
'There are people a whole lot worse off than us," Sharon Hamilton said. "We'll keep on working until we're done."
Sun reporter
Jerry Fink contributed to this story.
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