Earthquakes, floods, blackouts, toxins, terrorists— can Las Vegas (and its businesses) handle the unthinkable? We ask the really scary questions.
by Richard N. Velotta
or a city whose fortunes have been built on the luck of the draw, Las Vegas has had it pretty good on the disaster front. We never get tornadoes or hurricanes. But, yes, a microburst during a thunderstorm did knock down a brand new $9 million Las Vegas Hilton sign in 1994. There aren’t any rivers that routinely overflow their banks. But,
yes, those unpredictable quick-strike flash floods the desert Southwest is notorious for occasionally turn the parking garage of the Imperial Palace into Class 5 river rapids. Once while driving to an assignment to meet with executives of the newly opened JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort in Summerlin,
the U.S. 95 freeway turned into something resembling Lava Falls on the Colorado River. And I was driving upstream. It’s never good when your car changes lanes without turning the steering wheel. We do get more than a few earthquakes. The Nevada Earthquake
Safety Council (yes, the earth moves enough here to warrant the existence of a “safety council”) says the state is ranked fifth nationally in estimated losses on an annualized basis due to earthquakes, and ranked third behind Alaska and California for being at risk from large magnitude seismic activity. I remember the night a few years ago when the windows started rattling in my two-story North Las Vegas home and the hallway
