Written by Erin Zeltner
A week and a half has passed since the remains of Hurricane Norbert swept Nevada’s Moapa Valley with heavy rains, rendering Interstate-15 impassable after flash flooding destroyed about 2 miles of road between mile markers 91 and 93, near Logandale. Initially following the road closure, drivers waited up to six hours to make the trip between St. George and Las Vegas. The past several days have seen a return to more normal conditions for passenger vehicles, but commercial vehicles still have restricted access to I-15. Schools in the Moapa area have returned to normal function, and many acts of kindness and aid were reported during the challenging time period.
I-15 remained closed for four days after the flooding as Las Vegas Paving worked tirelessly to remove debris, build up the ravine that had sunken between the northbound and southbound lanes, build a new base, and pave a passable road on the northbound side of the freeway.
“We greatly appreciate the nonstop efforts of Las Vegas Paving to repair the interstate,” Nevada Department of Transportation district engineer Mary Martini said.
The state of Nevada estimates initial repair costs to be in the $5 million range, and the state is applying for federal reimbursement to aid them with their state of emergency.
With the current cost to run an average commercial truck being estimated at $75-$80 per hour, and with painstaking delays in the aftermath of the damage, the trucking industry has been majorly impacted.
“Millions of dollars have been lost as a direct result from the road closure,” said Paul Enos, CEO of the Nevada Trucking Association.
Commercial drivers traveling between Salt Lake City or Denver and Las Vegas have found additional travel time — up to eight hours total — to be a standard since the highway closed, but the drivers are grateful to Las Vegas Paving for their efforts and to NDOT for now allowing trucks to pass on I-15 between the hours of 7 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Commercial vehicles transport 94% of all manufactured freight into and out of the state of Nevada, a high number when compared to the 69% average for the rest of the country. Up to 36-hour delays have been reported by companies receiving shipments traveling via truck through the re-routed area. This week is National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, and Enos said he feels that the people working in his industry deserve a round of applause for their efforts.
“Has commerce slowed down? Absolutely. But it never stopped. Our men and women of this industry did what it took to ensure that things kept moving forward, and we’d like to say ‘thank you’ to them for that,” he said.
“That’s an extremely important corridor for us, and some of the shipments, both ground and freight, were impacted by one day for those four days after the initial road closure,” UPS spokesperson Susan Rosenberg said.
Rick Clasby, executive director of the Utah Trucking Association, expressed appreciation to NDOT and the Utah Department of Transportation.
“The were so very helpful in this situation by providing us with up-to-date information about available routes, so that we could pass that information along to our truckers, so that they could do the job they had to do.”
The impact of the immediate road closure on passenger vehicles was immense, leaving motorists stopped and stranded for up to four hours without word or information regarding what had happened. Emily Leavitt, a Moapa resident who had traveled to Mesquite to do some shopping, found herself trapped on the interstate with her 4-month-old twins and her 2-year-old with no water, and no way to make bottles.
“I didn’t even think about something like that being a possibility,” she said. “I had no way to feed my babies, and it was a pretty difficult challenge for all of us.”
A kind truck driver helped Leavitt by bringing her a gallon of water.
“I don’t know what I would have done without his help,” she said.
Leavitt said that when the time finally came to turn her car around and move in the direction that the Nevada Highway Patrol asked, she realized that the commercial truck drivers had been doing a lot of work to help others on the road.
“The truckers helped out quite a bit,” she said. “They helped clear the road so that everyone could get out. They were actually really cool.”
Over 50 students and a few teachers on a bus became stranded overnight as a result of the I-15 closure. Kenneth Paul, principal of Mac Lyon Middle School, said that the group was caught in an area that offered no way home for children who lived on the nearby Paiute reservation and other areas. They also found that they had no way to get the children safely back to the school and realized that they would be spending the night in the auxiliary room of a local parks and recreation building.
“The children were hungry and we had no food and all of the stores were closed, so we went and knocked on Lin’s grocery store, and a worker heard us and came and gave us all their prepared chicken so that we could feed everyone,” Paul said.
The students and teachers were offered separated gymnasium mats by the local parks and recreation department to sleep on, and they did have another challenge in having the power go out for the night, but Paul said that they dealt with it fairly well.
“We made it work, and everyone in the community helped make it work too,” he said.
Assistance poured in for the stranded students as teachers put out calls for help on Facebook. Local Mormon church members brought blankets and necessities for the children and in the morning, the principal of nearby Grant Bowler Elementary School made pancakes for them. The Nevada Highway Patrol helped get all of the children safely home the following morning. They were unable to travel to school for the next four days.
NDOT expects a full and complete return to normal driving conditions by Sunday, Sept. 21. With the new road restoration and the damages and trauma from the last rains, residents and drivers hope that hurricane-related heavy rains expected to hit this weekend do not incur further damage to the area.
“We are hoping and praying that Hurricane Odile doesn’t do to us what Norbert did,” Enos said.
For up-to-date information on I-15 travel times and restrictions for commercial drivers, visit www.nevadadot.com/Traveler_Info/Commercial_Vehicle_Information.aspx.
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