Lake Mead official: Boat sinks, docks damaged in Friday storm at Las Vegas Boat Harbor

By Shawna Khalafi

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    LAS VEGAS, Nevada (KVVU) — On Friday, a monsoon storm tore through the Las Vegas Boat Harbor at Lake Mead, causing significant damage. The storm was separate from Tropical Storm Hilary, which moved through the area on Saturday.

“We’ve seen some pretty bad storms here, you know,” said boater Chris Marsack. “I’ve seen portions break and so on, but this is by far the worst.”

He was on his boat at the Lake Mead Marina Friday night, when the storm hit the Las Vegas Boat Harbor about half a mile away from him.

“There was some concern,” said Marsack. “I have an anemometer on my boat, and I got a 48 mph wind gust was the highest we saw here, but you could see it coming out there, way worse.”

Marsack said he saw a giant cloud of dust, and then destruction on the dock at the Las Vegas Boat Harbor.

“The monsoon when it came in, it had high winds and also generated a lot of large waves that separated docks,” said John Haynes, public affairs officer for the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. “There was at least one boat that sank that was more in the marina, we have some fuel in the water. Some of the structures that are sitting on the dock were damaged as well.”

The storm also caused a power outage at the harbor that still hasn’t been resolved. Haynes said park officials spent the weekend making sure everything was secure on the dock in case it was hit with another wave of severe weather from Tropical Storm Hilary, which, he said, caused almost no damage.

Now, they’re focused on the damage from Friday’s storm. The Las Vegas Boat Harbor at Lake Mead remained closed Tuesday as the damage assessment continues.

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