Water flooded into casinos in Las Vegas after a rare thunderstorm hit the desert gambling mecca.
The storm occurred on Thursday night, resulting in flash floods across Sin City.
Social media users circulated videos showing the water pouring through the roofs of casinos and cars cautiously making their way through flooded downtown streets, which are not built to handle flooding.
David Charns, a journalist in the city, shared a video of water pouring through a sports betting screen at the Circa casino, puddling on the flood around a pair of small tables.
Despite the flooding, the hotel's management assured gamblers that its latest sportsbetting cotest was still on.
“Just to confirm, the $12 million in guaranteed prizes for #CircaSportsMillion and #CircaSurvivor were not washed away or otherwise affected by tonight’s storm and flooding," casino officials said.
According to Vital Vegas, another Twitter page posting updates about the city, a lightning strike blew out a show canopy at the Freemont Street Experience. Several exterior lights at a number of downtown casinos also were knocked out by the blast.
The Las Vegas Review Journal reported that up to 7,300 people lost power during the storm. The city issued a flash flood warning and advised residents to watch for strong winds, lighting and "heaving downpours."
The Clark County Regional Flood Control District posted an update on Twitter describing the scope of the flooding.
“Water depth has risen to over 16 feet in the Tropicana Detention Basin near Russell and Decatur in the last two hours,” it wrote. “Still lots of capacity left in basin to store more water as the upstream channels continue to drain to the basin.”
The National Weather Service in Las Vegas said the city will likely be hit by more rain tonight.
Thursday’s storm brought approximately an inch of rain, 55mph winds, and power outages. At least four vehicle crashes were attributed to the flooding, according to the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada.
The flooding affected more than just downtown Las Vegas; the nearby city of Henderson, where many of the city's residents live, also saw heavy flooding and damage.
One homeowner told Fox5Vegas that pressure from the water build up broke through and destroyed his brick wall in his backyard. The water rushed over the broken wall and began flooding his home, trapping him inside until the waters receded.
