Las Vegas strip is flooded as thunderstorms hit triggering rainfall INSIDE Planet Hollywood

By James On Aug 12, 2022

Water cascaded from casino ceilings in Las Vegas for the second time in two weeks after intense summer thunderstorms and torrential rain drenched the city.

Extraordinary footage from inside the Planet Hollywood casino on the Las Vegas strip showed rain pouring through the ceiling, as the city became flooded.

Sean Sable, who shared footage from inside Planet Hollywood, tweeted: ‘You’re not going to believe this, but I’m not sure if it’s raining more inside Planet Hollywood or outside.’

Rain also began pouring through the ceiling inside Caesar’s Palace, with desperate staff trying to cordon off a flooded area with soaking wet slot machine chairs.

Outside, the city’s roads are largely unpassable for drivers as they have become blocked by floodwater or cordoned off by police, as officials warned the public not to drive in the flooded streets.

But one driver was seen driving their cor down the neon-soaked Las Vegas strip, as the water rose up above the vehicle’s bumper.

The intense thunderstorms and heavy rain left more than 17,500 people in Las Vegas without power on Thursday night, reports KLAS 8 News Now.

The National Weather Service for Las Vegas issued a flash flood warning on Thursday evening and a flood advisory warning until 12.15am on Friday. The rain is expected to continue throughout the weekend, forecasters said.

Extraordinary footage from inside Planet Hollywood on the Las Vegas strip showed rain pouring through the ceilings of the casino

Sean Sable, who shared footage from inside Planet Hollywood, tweeted: ‘You’re not going to believe this, but I’m not sure if it’s raining more inside Planet Hollywood or outside’

‘Never have I seen rain this torrential like I saw this evening,’ Richard Henderson, who is from Vancouver, Canada, told the New York Post.

‘The rain was so heavy that you could barely see the Flamingo across the street.’

Henderson, who had been inside Caesar’s Palace when the rain began pouring through the ceiling, said desperate staff cordoned off a flooded area ‘with makeshift barrier of soaking wet slot machine chairs’.

He said: ‘A quick glance to the ceiling and we were shocked to see water pouring out of every sprinkler head and other spots.

‘The sheer amount of water made one of my friends very nervous – she was very concerned about the possibility of more water coming in or a partial ceiling collapse.’

Henderson added: ‘The lightning strikes were intense. I’ve never seen anything quite like it in Vegas.’

Outside, the neon-soaked Las Vegas strip was flooded and a driver was seen driving their car down the road, as the water rose up above the vehicle’s bumper

Basements were also flooded in Las Vegas following the heavy rainfall on Thursday night

The rain is expected to continue throughout the weekend,National Weather Service Las Vegas lead Forecaster Chris Outler told The Post.

Outler said: ‘There are daily chances. Right now the rain has tapered off across the valley but just about every day, especially in the afternoon and evening hours, we have about 30% chances for Las Vegas.’

The flooding on Thursday night comes after Las Vegas experienced similarly intense thunderstorms two weeks ago.

The heavy rainfall on June 29 caused water to cascade from casino ceilings and pool on the carpet of a stadium-sized sports betting area.

Casino patrons posted videos at the time of water pouring from ceilings at Caesars Palace and Planet Hollywood resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and from behind a huge video display at the downtown Circa hotel-casino sports book.

One video showed a man continuing to gamble at a casino slot machine while water fell around him.

‘A night we’ll never forget,’ Circa owner Derek Stevens said in a Twitter post.

The annual weather pattern has brought a parade of storms across the U.S. Southwest in recent weeks that lead to flooding in normally dry washes, rain measured in inches and rescue operations.

While the rain is welcome in a region gripped by drought, it creates headaches for neighborhoods where wildfires have stripped the land of vegetation, which normally slows and partially absorbs floodwaters.

The surface level at the region’s drought-stricken water supply — the Lake Mead reservoir behind Hoover Dam on the Colorado River — has dropped to less than 30%.

While runoff from storms in the Las Vegas area will reach the lake, monsoon moisture is not likely to affect the ongoing regional drought, John Adair, a veteran meteorologist at the weather service office, said.

‘For that, we generally rely on the winter season, where we get multiple Pacific storms coming in and covering a wide area with rain and snow,’ the meteorologist said. ‘That can make a significant impact on drought.’