Nye County Public Works mitigating town’s storm debris

In reference to Sunday and Monday’s severe weather in Pahrump, Nye County Public Works Director Tim Dahl said he’s never witnessed such a rain and wind event throughout the valley.

Dahl spoke to the Pahrump Valley Times about how he and his department are responding to the aftermath of the storm which ushered in winds exceeding 70 miles per hour in parts of the valley on Sunday evening.

According to the National Weather Service, total rainfall on Monday was 1.87 inches with wind gusts exceeding 40 miles per hour, which resulted in numerous downed trees throughout the valley.

“I saw plenty of damage to our infrastructure and we got the first flooding on Sunday night when I was called out at 10 o’clock,” Dahl said. “We were primarily focused on trying to open up the roads for the sheriff’s office and the fire department after the trees fell onto the roadways. The traffic lights at State Route 372 and 160 had no power, while the lights at Basin and 160 were flashing red. When the water subsided, we reset those and we all got back home at about 4 a.m.”

Assistance from afar

As part of his department’s response, Dahl said additional resources were needed to assist in the endeavor.

“We acquired equipment and manpower from Tonopah and Beatty, so we were primarily trying to provide emergency access for fire, EMS and the sheriff’s office,” he said. “The event affected State Route 160 from Rainbow, all the way up north to U.S. 95. My time with the county started in 1998, so I’ve been here for quite a while and I have never witnessed an event like this. We basically saw 40 and 50 year-old trees that were toppled over from the Sunday event. They damaged a lot of roofs, and like I said, they did block a lot of county right-of-way access roads.”

Neighborhood cleanup

In conjunction with clearing the main thoroughfares in town, public works crews were also working to ensure that residents can get in and out of their driveways.

“Basically we had to put a Band-aid on each one of those driveways so that we can go on to the next one,” he said. “Once we do all that, we’ll then come back and we’ll start redefining ditches, rebuilding driveways, and rebuilding sections of asphalt and chip-sealed roads that were damaged by the water and the debris.”

With that said, Dahl noted that public works does not perform work on businesses or private residences.

“We don’t do anything to the trees that have fallen on the property of residential homes, businesses, or the golf courses,” he said. “The county does take care of the trees that have fallen down at any of the parks. We remove those trees and set them off to the side. We then go back, cut the trees and stack up the wood. More than likely, I’ll check to see if it’s okay to allow people to come get that wood. I’m not exactly sure if that’s what we can do, but that’s just Tim Dahl’s idea of how to get rid of it because there’s a lot of wood, and I know a lot of people can benefit from it. People use it for landscaping, to keep the weeds down and that type of thing. What people don’t want, we will chip it up and send it to the landfill.”

State assistance

Additionally, Dahl noted that mitigation efforts performed on State Route 160 and 372 are primarily done by the State of Nevada Department of Transportation.

“I’m responsible for all those other ancillary and access roads throughout all of Pahrump and Nye County,” he said. “We have been working diligently to keep those roads clear of debris to make them passable for emergency vehicles and people. Once we get done with that stage, we’ll go back through and make everything look pretty again, so that’s the plan that we are trying to accomplish, and we’re starting to get there. I’ve seen that most of the most commercial stores and businesses are taking it upon themselves to remove debris from their property and get things back to normal.”

This week, Nevada Department of Transportation street sweeper crews were highly visible as they worked to clear rocks and debris off of the roadways.

Dahl urged motorists to be patient as the tasks will continue until the operation concludes.

“When it comes to the cleanup, It’s really important for everybody to have patience with us,” he advised. “We are working diligently to try to make sure that everybody has access to emergency medical services as well as their residences. We also want people to please help us identify issues that need to be addressed. I also want to ask people to do themselves and our emergency responders a favor by trying to limit their amount of travel during these kinds of weather events.”

A job well done

On a final note, Dahl lauded his public works staff for their unwavering work in the mitigation effort.

“They have just worked their tails off for the last four days trying to make sure that we get ahead of this and we’re doing OK,” he said. “We are not working all night, but the team is sacrificing time with their families to help provide access for emergency vehicles and I think we’re starting to get a little bit ahead of it enough to benefit us when more rain is expected this weekend. Our office fared pretty well as far as the flooding went, but we did get some rain that came down through the roof so we’re taking care of all those ancillary leaks that are in our building and they’re doing a great job of keeping up.”

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes