Disasters: Can Las Vegas and its businesses handle the unthinkable?

Earthquakes, floods, blackouts, toxins, terrorists—can Las Vegas (and its businesses) handle the unthinkable? We ask the really scary questions.

AP Photo/The Yomiuri Shimbun, Yasushi Nagao

A tsunami approaches seashore houses in Kita Ibaraki, Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, Friday, March 11, 2011.

VEGAS INC coverage

For 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 began to sway. Waking from a deep sleep, I tried to recall what my California relatives told me about what to do besides scream when the ground begins to rock and roll. I somehow managed to guide my family under tables and desks away from the windows. By the time we got there, the shaking had stopped.

While Las Vegas has never been hit with an epic disaster, it has gotten a sampling of what Mother Nature can do. The foundation of the state’s argument against completing construction of Yucca Mountain was built on emphasizing that lingering doubt of “What if…”

Disaster is fresh in our minds as a result of the stunning media coverage of the devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear nail-biting over the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

After seeing the devastating consequences of cascading disasters in Japan, we have to be asking ourselves: Are we ready? Would Las Vegas be able to survive a cataclysm of biblical proportions?

Carolyn Levering, manager of the city’s Office of Emergency Management, and Steve Moyer, director of corporate security for NV Energy, say they sleep well at night despite the potential for natural disaster or terrorism.

I pitched a few disaster scenarios their way and they say a steady calendar of preparedness events keeps them on their toes and always thinking about how to stay sharp.

Flash flood

The desert Southwest is notorious for its flash floods. Lives have been lost and property damaged on the Flamingo Wash near Boulder Highway. But what would happen if a massive flash flood wiped out our lifeline to Southern California? What if key bridges along Interstate 15 and the Union Pacific Railroad were wiped out? How long would it take to replace the bridges? How long would the tourism economy be affected? What about goods that come to Las Vegas from Southern California? How long would the supply chain be disrupted? Would costs go up as a result of trucks having to drive alternate routes for an extended period of time?

Carolyn Levering, who has spent 12 years preparing for emergencies and disasters, said the government agency at the point of impact takes charge of the incident. So, in the case of a flash flood washing out bridges south of the city, a county government or possibly California state government would take charge even though the economic fallout would more severely affect Southern Nevada.

“Damage to the economy is tougher to predict and tougher to recover from,” Levering said. “Unfortunately, we can’t claim losses and reimbursements for people that might have come from California to spend X number of dollars that weekend.”

Depending on the severity of destruction, the governor can call for and the president can make a disaster declaration, which opens the door to federal recovery aid.

“In a case like this, there are other supply routes, from Northern Nevada, Utah or Arizona,” she said. “But a disaster declaration can expedite repairs. It’s amazing how quickly they can get it done when the economic incentive is there.”

Case in point: When a gasoline tanker truck exploded on the San Francisco Bay Area’s McArthur Maze viaduct, wiping out 165 feet of elevated freeway at a busy intersection in 2007, Caltrans workers reconstructed the bridge 26 days after the accident and 33 days ahead of the contracted schedule.

How? The contract included a $200,000-a-day early completion bonus. That’s how.

Toxic spill

Most of us don’t want to know what kinds of toxic materials are on train cars and tankers that pass through Las Vegas on the Union Pacific.

Train derailments and accidents are so infrequent that they make huge news when they happen, particularly in Southern Nevada. But they do happen.

In August 2007, a tank car loaded with chlorine gas escaped the Arden train yard near Blue Diamond Road, rolling downhill through a densely populated area for 20 miles in 16 minutes before braking to a stop in North Las Vegas after Union Pacific workers hopped aboard as it was slowing down.

Fortunately, all the automated grade crossings worked properly and nothing got in the way of the unmanned tanker that rolled straight out of a Denzel Washington flick.

Is the city ready for a train derailment and a toxic chemical spill?

Carolyn Levering doesn’t scare easily, but it was clear that the runaway tanker incident bothered her.

“We dodged a bullet, a really big bullet,” said Levering, who was an emergency manager for Clark County at the time and saw the tanker roll past her office. “We were very, very lucky. If that car had derailed and gas escaped, it could have killed upward of 100,000 people because of the toxic nature of the gas on board and how far it could spread given the weather conditions and time of day.”

Since the incident, Levering said the Union Pacific Railroad has changed its procedures to prevent a rail runaway. But what is worrisome is that the railroad doesn’t have the resources to patrol its lines 24/7 and has a we’ll-respond-when-we-have-to mentality.

As far as the witches’ brew of toxic chemicals that pass within a few hundred yards of the thousands of tourists who routinely visit the city, there are few solutions.

“There are things even the railroads don’t want to transport for the government, but they’re required to,” Levering said. “They don’t want the liability, but transporting by rail is still the safest way to do it.”

Blackout

Emergency management officials at NV Energy won’t tell me which power plants and transmission lines are most critical to maintaining service and what part of the system is most vulnerable and, frankly, I don’t want to know.

I’m not going to go Atlantic magazine here and spell out how to build a nuclear device so that any reader could go out and cause trouble.

But I have to assume that there’s a part of the system that if damaged by earthquake, rock slide, flash flood or wildfire would create havoc to supplying power to Southern Nevada. How would Las Vegas cope without air conditioning on 110-degree days? How high would the death toll be for people who couldn’t survive the desert conditions?

Steve Moyer, NV Energy’s director of corporate security, said he’s comfortable with the power company’s various redundant systems that can steer the flow of electricity from other sources to make sure the lights—and the air conditioning—stay on.

He said the company has emergency management personnel at both ends of the state and even though the north and south are not connected with a transmission line, there is plenty of connectivity on the grid to keep the juice flowing.

Three people are dedicated full time to emergency management, one for generation, one for transmission and distribution and one to work specifically on keeping information technology systems intact.

Carolyn Levering said the concept of having emergency managers working for various utility companies is a relatively new concept, evolving over the past 12 years after the Y2K panic.

Now, all major utilities have teams, and Moyer said regionally the Southern Nevada Utility and Pipeline Emergency Management Coordinating Group comprised of security, operations and emergency management experts communicate with each other and cooperate on coordinated responses to emergencies and disasters.

In addition to NV Energy, the organization includes Southwest Gas Corp., Kern River Pipeline, Kinder Morgan, CenturyLink, River City Petroleum, the Las Vegas Valley Water District, the Clark County Water Reclamation District and Switch Communications.

Moyer said that although transmission lines are in remote locations, NV Energy is prepared to reach them quickly by helicopter in an emergency.

Earthquake

The calamity that generates the most fear is the earthquake. How do you prepare for the prospect of buildings collapsing and roads buckling at a moment’s notice?

What happens if the epicenter of the next “big one” is close to Las Vegas? Are our buildings built with codes that demand “earthquake-proof” standards? Is it possible that a resort could collapse or topple? How sturdy are the parking garages?

And how big does the big one have to be? Could an earthquake destroy Hoover Dam and drain our water supply? Or could a little 5.0 on the Richter scale create enough panic to turn a frightening event into a full-scale disaster?

Despite the end-of-the-world devastation that occurred in Japan, Carolyn Levering doesn’t believe there’s enough energy in an earthquake to take out the largest concrete arch dam in the United States.

“Hoover Dam is a conundrum to us,” she said. “It’s so massive that it’s difficult to conceive of its failure, for any reason. A terrorist could fly a thousand planes into it and it’s not going anywhere. Science does not support an earthquake with significant capability to cause that kind of damage to Hoover, but who knows what happens a thousand years from now.”

Levering said to her knowledge, no one has contemplated the long-term effects of losing the water supply in an instant.

“I’m not sure there is any community prepared to respond to the entire loss of their water supply, other than to import water from elsewhere,” she said.

Her bigger worry is the danger from the tons of glass along the Las Vegas Strip.

Levering explained that over time, building codes have gotten better and that there are more structures, particularly the city’s resorts, that are strong enough to withstand a major earthquake.

“We do have some unreinforced masonry structures and they are the first to go in an earthquake of 5.0 and worse,” she said. “New buildings meet most of the international seismic standards. For most of the city, it would be safer to be inside than outside.

“My concern with the newer structures is not whether the structure can withstand the shaking. It’s whether the plate glass windows stay in place. Those windows popping out and dropping to the ground can kill people and that’s why it’s safer to be inside than out,” Levering said.

Terrorist attack

As one of the premiere tourism destinations in the world, Las Vegas is a terrorist target.

And because it is, emergency managers have practiced being ready for an attack.

The threat of terrorism has raised the demand for preparation, but it also has given emergency responders additional resources. In addition to being prepared for a host of ugly scenarios, managers have to recognize that their disaster may also be a crime scene and that they have to protect evidence.

Although the world has seen airliners hijacked and turned into guided missiles and subway tunnels blown up to scare commuters and tourists, managers are trying to think about the unthinkable. Most recently, Carolyn Levering’s team has been preparing for chemical, biological and nuclear attacks. This summer, Las Vegas will be one of 15 cities nationwide participating in a Federal Emergency Management Agency terrorism exercise.

Part of the challenge of preparing for those types of attacks is to retrain first responders, whose instinct is to race to the scene.

“We’re telling our responders not to respond and it goes against their grain,” Levering said. “It’s completely opposite of everything they do, but it’s important that they avoid contamination.”

Federal emergency teams have established plans to deliver “push packages,” warehouses of equipment, medications and detection devices that are stored within 12 hours of any location. She said there are push packages stored in Las Vegas. Nellis Air Force Base also has remote sensing lab equipment to make plume projections to detect life-threatening substances.

In addition to being prepared and practicing, local disaster management teams are seeking guidance from federal authorities about balancing response capabilities against a budget and determining how much to spend for a high-consequence, low-probability event.

“We’re asking the feds about what level of competence and capability we should retain at the local level until the cavalry arrives,” she said, “because we all expect the cavalry.”

Levering said the best thing the residents of Las Vegas can do on the terrorism front is to report suspicious activity for prevention and to be prepared in the event of an incident.

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