Nye County and Pahrump staff, volunteers applauded for storm response

It’s not often that local governmental staff is acclaimed for the work they do each and every day to keep the county and its various towns running smoothly, but following the two major thunderstorms that blew through the Pahrump Valley last week, there was an absolute outpouring of gratitude for these men and women whose efforts and energy were crucial in responding to the local weather emergency.

“If there was ever a time to be proud of our county staff, the town staff and all of our volunteers, it was perfectly demonstrated last week,” Nye County Emergency Management Director and Pahrump Valley Fire and Rescue Service Chief Scott Lewis declared at the Nye County Commission’s Tuesday, Aug. 3 meeting.

Lewis provided a synopsis of the two storms that pummeled the town on Sunday, July 25 and Monday, July 26, explaining that the valley saw both hurricane-force winds and drenching rains that wreaked havoc throughout town.

“A significant wind and rain event occurred late evening on July 25, this storm brought approximately 0.5 inches of rain and a microburst of 80-plus mile per hour winds that dissected our valley, causing a swathe of damage to the center part of our town,” Lewis stated. “That event lasted less than half an hour. A significant follow-up storm was closely followed by heavy rain that brought almost 2 inches of precipitation within two hours to our valley. The valley quickly experienced flash floods at almost every area of Pahrump, including all the washes on the alluvial fan. Therefore, in approximately a two-and-a-half-hour time period, we had experienced most of our annual precipitation.”

Lewis highlighted the efforts of Pahrump Valley Fire and Rescue Service, the Nye County Department of Emergency Management and the Nye County Sheriff’s Office, each of which played a vital role in the wake of the storms, undertaking dozens of rescues of those trapped in disabled vehicles due to the rising floodwaters seen on July 26. He also underscored the imperative work performed by the Nye County Public Works team, which responded in the middle of the night to address the fallout from the major wind event on July 25 and which continues to work toward restoring the valley’s roadways and residential access points.

Lewis noted that there have been property damage assessment teams from the state in the valley since the storms hit and they have expressed admiration for the job that the county and town has done thus far to address the devastation wrought by the storms.

“I have to mention Tim (Dahl, Director of Nye County Public Works) specifically, because… they (state assessment team members) were so impressed by the fact that most of our culverts were being put back into place, with residential driveways being reconstructed so that people can get in and out of their homes and fire and EMS services can get in to fight fires and get patients as necessary. There were separations that I can’t even begin to describe to you, depths of five-plus feet running alongside our roadways, separating the houses from the street and they were so impressed that we were getting things back into place and Tim Dahl worked tirelessly,” Lewis said.

Dahl took a moment to speak on the storm response as well, remarking, “Our primary concern was emergency access. We have to provide emergency access, that’s why we worked diligently to do that…. I have a great team that did a great job, they stepped up, as did our management team and I’d like to think we did a pretty good job of keeping us safer than had we not been there.”

Nye County commissioners were sure to voice just how grateful they were as well, with commissioner Leo Blundo starting off by thanking Nye County Manager Tim Sutton for immediately taking action to declare a state of emergency in the county as a result of the storm.

“I just want to take a quick moment and thank the county manager for putting out the emergency declaration,” Blundo stated. “I thought that was very critical, we needed to move very fast on that.” He expressed his hope that with the declaration, the county will be able to receive assistance from the state as well as the federal government in dealing with the work and costs that are associated with responding to the storms.

The declaration of emergency was originally planned to have been on the agenda for the Tuesday meeting but Sutton said that item would instead be placed on a future agenda for discussion and ratification by the commission.

Nye County Commissioner Bruce Jabbour then spoke, stating, “I simply want to shout out and give a huge, enormous thank you to the entire county staff and the volunteers who facilitated and assisted with the cleanup. I was very impressed with what the staff and volunteers did to help clean up, and pull trees off the streets for future safety, so again, thank you very much to everybody.”

Commissioner Frank Carbone added, “I appreciate the compliments to the staff… I’d like to thank the crews that were out doing the work to make people safe, even though they were working in a dangerous situation… I was actually out there with the crews during this situation, I was also shoveling dirt wherever I could get a shovel into. It’s great to see the county come together.”

Commission chair Debra Strickland chimed in as well, remarking, “Well said from everyone. We love our employees and how much they do to keep our county running.”

It wasn’t just commissioners that joined in the round of accolades, either, with Nye County Treasurer John Prudhont jumping in too, highlighting the buildings and grounds crews and the IT department, which responded following the flooding experienced at his office in Pahrump.

“We had about three inches of water in the front of the office that apparently came from the roof opening up from that wind that came through,” Prudhont said, adding that the recorder’s office, which is adjacent to his, had experienced even more damage. He explained that his staff had come into work and continued to try to do their duty without electricity and amid flooded conditions, for which he was very thankful. “Our employees are working for our county and I want our county people, the people who live here who don’t see this on a day-to-day basis, to know how proud I am of everybody in this county and what everybody has done to get us through this,” Prudhont said.

“Exceptional,” Strickland enthused.

“I also wanted to express gratitude for all the staff that came together,” Sutton stated before the commissioners moved on to other items of interest that morning. “There are a lot of very public examples that showed up on Facebook and things but we also had tons of behind-the-scenes and behind-doors actions of service, people staying late and making phone calls and holding buckets while water was coming down, so I wanted to express gratitude for that.”

Several members of the public also joined the torrent of thanks, adding their appreciation for the local response and applauding the efforts that have resulted in a fairly swift return to, if not normal, at least functional.

Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com