Ep 52 - Las Vegas Flood Update

Don't believe everything you see in the news and social media. Tony, MoJoe and Ice talk about the tropical storm and how the fake news was causing unnecessary worry for friends and family.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Live from three months three to experiencein fabulous downtown Las Vegas. It's the
podcast that celebrates our city. Thisis Living Las Vegas. Okay, I
want to take a temperature of theroom here. It's Mojo from ninety five
The Bowl. I sent Tony fromninety three one the Mountain. How many
people have reached out to you thisweek? Especially, you know last weekend
it's a are you guys? Okay, that's a hurricane. I've seen I've

(00:24):
seen the video of the flooding alot. Are you How are you guys
swimming to work? No, Ibrought a hoverboard. Nothing to see here.
You know, it's funny to mehow, especially our city too,
how how people believe everything that they'reseeing on the news and like what the
what the weather men are saying?You know, It's like I just kind
of because I've lived in so manydifferent cities outside of what I'm like used

(00:47):
to from where I grew up,and I just believe it when I see
it. I don't let the hypekind of like form my you know,
I don't know attitude I guess towardsit. I just kind of wait and
see what's gonna happen. Sure,I'll prep and prepare, Like I took
all my wind chimes and stuff offmy patio just because I didn't want want
them flying away. Yeah sure,But I mean, was it really that

(01:07):
much rain? It wasn't worse thanwe've seen before by any stretch. I
think it didn't end up being thatover here, we take it from the
top. I think the hype,it depends on what news organization you were
watching in the days leading up towhat was supposed to be a pretty extreme

(01:30):
event for us. I ended upbeing an extreme event for some we just
got missed. So yes, theWeather Channel needs to keep people around longer,
so they need to be first ofall, they can justify it in
their building because they're saying, hey, we're giving people the necessary information to
protect themselves save lives. All good, but is it a little bit too
much hype and what And the benefitfor them is people stay longer. Right,

(01:56):
it's fear right there. Yeah,it's it's a watch fear. There's
sort of and it's not unlike whatsome other news channels do too. So
you know, it's like the longerwe can keep people's eyeballs on the commercials,
the better, and the best wayto do that is show people how
bad it's going to be, right, and then certainly to show people how
bad it was. That's important reportingtoo. So if you're on the couch

(02:17):
anywhere else watching the Weather Channel andsome of those other national channels, and
you're in let's say, some townlike York, Pennsylvania, that's first when
the game to your head on YorkPennsylvania on my mind. So then you're
seeing that and you're going, well, obviously Las Vegas is about to be

(02:37):
devastated by right, So and againyou watch because it's interesting. And on
the local level, you woke upthat morning Sunday morning, and none of
our people were really covering it withthe kind of wall to wall coverage you
would expect from something that was goingto be so devastating. So the local
coverage was more appropriate, i thinkthan the national coverage was because we've been
through it, and like Ice issaying, when it gets bad, that's

(03:00):
when I'll start to really feel likeI've got to evacuate or I've got you
know, the things that that youwould do when it gets bad. But
everybody batting down some hatches, right, They took the wind chimes down.
They made sure the you know,the floats in the pool were brought into
the garage so they don't float away, right, you You prepared for some
wind and some rain and if itgets really bad, then we'll handle it

(03:23):
the way that it needs to behandled in real time. Well, the
fear mong mangering, mongling, what'sthe right word? Fear mongering? I
don't even know. Yeah, thatsounds like I don't know how you Yes,
the over hyping was the fear Ifear mongling. I don't think that's
it. Yeah, mongering, mongeringwords are hard. I'll tell you,
what do you spell mongering? Thisis not a spelling. Let's not do

(03:45):
that. The over hyping wasn't justlimited to the news, you know.
Social media played a role. Look, middle of the day Sunday when we're
supposed to be hit but completely dodgedthat bullet, which, by the way,
we didn't get rain for the mostpart in Las Vegas until after dark
on Sunday, like hours after wewere supposed to get hit. The middle
of the day, I'm seeing socialmedia influence posting old videos of the strip

(04:09):
being flooded. I might come righton, come on, yeah, and
if you were out of town andyou weren't careful with what you were trying
to if you were, if youweren't careful and had a good filter for
it, yeah, you were seeingstuff that wasn't at all accurate right on
the way to work. Now,what you're saying isn't exact exactly accurate either,
because pre like nine o'clock on Sundaymorning, we were getting rained.

(04:30):
It was steadily, lightly raining.It wasn't a downpour. It was steady
and light. Uh, something we'veseen certainly our infrastructure can't handle. And
on the way into work that morning, I was coming in for some coverage.
It was like nine thirty and Ipassed by Binions over there on Casino
Center, and there's a guy standingthere, fully dressed to play golf with

(04:53):
his golf clubs on the stand,and he's waiting for his cab or his
lyft. He's getting ready to goplay golf. And I'm like, he's
the paying attention, Like he's nevergoing to play golf today, He's gonna
pour down rain all day long.It sort of seemed like it was going
to It turns out that guy actuallyhad a pretty nice day for golf.
He's say it didn't rain. Itsort of stopped raining down here on Fremont
Street at like ten am and didn'train again all day until whatever time that

(05:16):
night where it started back up.So true, I mean the zip line
was running. Yeah, it wasbusiness as usual on Fremont Street. I
had. I have a hot tubin my backyard, one of those you
know, cheap ones you get atcostco of the inflatable ones, and I
can tell how much rain we getby how much rain waters on the cover
pushing it down. And when Igot home, I was out of town
and my flight. First of all, it was supposed to fly back Sunday
afternoon at like five, and theycanceled it. So I was able to

(05:39):
get on at nine am to flyback early. Luckily, otherwise who knows
what that would have turned into witheverybody else getting canceled around Las Vegas.
But I got back that morning andsaw all that water in the hot tub
lid, and I was like,oh, we did get some rain,
but that was to your point.Yeah, the rest of the day was
pretty dry until the evening. Theyactually had some damage at Lake Lost,

(06:00):
Vegas from a previous cell. Thishad nothing to do with the hurricane that
turned into the tropical storm. Theyjust had damage from wind that was pre
hurricane, pre tropical storm. Andthen last night we got all this rain
that was post hurricane, post tropicalstorm. We got a ton of rain
that had some flooding going down downon the strip. So it's you can't
predict any of this. We've becomeagain to isis point, We've become accustomed

(06:25):
to the dire warnings that turn intonothing. So we're more of a all
right, when it gets bad,I'll handle it, kind of a kind
of a community. Well, thesphere needs to get on that idea,
because apparently that got a little glitchywhen the hurricane Hillary was kind of hitting
it. Harris got hit hard theLink. Obviously everybody knows about the Link

(06:46):
and their parking lot. And nowwe know why Treasure Island has pirates because
the strip just turns into a nicelittle river for us. Well, I
mean obviously it's Thursday night, yeahlast night. Yeah, it didn't happen
during the tristical storm. Right,there was some interesting and it's always interesting
to see how unprepared the casinos areon the strip or rain. Well,
it's not built for it. Andthis isn't even the hurricane or the tropical

(07:09):
storm. This is last night.It's a Wednesday night. Part of the
ceiling it haras fell in and there'sa video footage, and I think it
again, it's sometimes you look atthe footage you've seen on social media from
influencers and it's old footage are repurposing. But right it looked like this was
new footage of drips and casinos thatit just weren't ready for the rain.
You think they would be ready forrain. It happens we have monsoons here.

(07:30):
Well, older buildings not. Youknow, maybe back then weren't built
to prepare for this kind of weather. So then when it happens, then
they're like, oh, I meanwe might have to switch up our our
plans. We do get rain fromtime to time, and it blew here
like a year ago. Yeah,it seems like almost exactly a year ago.
There was enough rain that there weremultiple casinos, Caesars circa exactly old

(07:56):
buildings, right, pretty new buildingsthat had rain on they're gambling floors on
their casino floors, came through theceiling, came through whatever and hit the
ground in the you know, aroundthe slot machines or in the sports book,
and that was a year ago.And then you're saying it happened Wednesday
night again going back to the tropicalstorm. It didn't happen during the tropical
storm. This happened Wednesday night hereright in Las Vegas, days and later,

(08:18):
so it can happen. I don'tknow. You're right, they're just
not prepared enough. It seems likesomebody needs to go up there and tar
it over or whatever you do witha slashing. I just used my two
roofing terms that I know, tartand flash well. But from what I
heard in the circu example last year, I believe is the example I heard.
It had nothing to do with theleaky roof, had everything to do

(08:39):
with the pipes. Okay, thereyou go. I don't know what causes
that issue, but you can almostguarantee when we get a heavy rainfall here
in Las Vegas, you will seevideos pop up on social media and even
on the news of casinos having drippingselings. Don't know why. I don't
know what causes it. Did seedripping ceiling Sunday night so here. Oh
yeah, let me show you thevideo because when it started raining again Sunday

(09:01):
night, after we had sort ofbeen talking about, hey, it's gonna
rain all day and it did.Yeah. Then at like ten o'clock or
whatever nine thirty that night it startedraining again, heavy enough where you're like,
oh, well, this is something. And we had rain here in
our building that was pouring through overin the performance launch Yeah. Oh no,
okay, well note to self.Did you see that meme? Oh

(09:24):
no, what it was the chairthat was like blown over and it said
we will rebuild, Vegas will build. I feel like I feel like that's
uh, that's Lieutenant Dan given MotherNature, the bird and Forrest Gump.
When when the storm really comes in, I don't know that I want to
tempt fate and feeling taunt Mother Naturebecause we just had a hurricane almost hit

(09:48):
us like let's go easy on andsaying no, no, that's all you
got, and we do get floodingand it's dangerous. So nobody's saying flooding
isn't dangerous. No, No,I'm just saying we didn't get dangerous,
dangerous flooding during the hurricane tropical storm. Other times a year, we still
get rain that causes flooding. Floodingis to be taken seriously. Six inches
can knock a person down, andwhen you get knocked down, who knows

(10:11):
what happens next to you? Whenwe'll avoid that and twelve inches of rain
no wait, six inches for aperson, twelve inches for a car,
right, yeah, that sounds right. Yeah, twelve inches can start sweeping
cars away. So you get andit happens in our intersections, that it
happens near washes, and so peopleare dangerous to take it not quite seriously
enough. Sometimes we probably took itappropriately seriously during the tropical storm and preparing

(10:37):
everybody for what could have been prettybad. Yeah, the only fair joke
is the lin garage. You're like, you can make your jokes about that
because you get a sprinkle and it'sgonna start flooding. But people love to
show that, and it is shockingwhen you see it the first time,
you're like, oh wow, that'swow, that's bad. And then somebody
says, well, that's how that'ssupposed to be done, and that's designed
that way for a reason, andit happens every time, and we're glad

(10:58):
it does because the rain goes whereit's sure It's still the funny joke though
every time. And we did seewhat happened in Palm Springs, and look,
that could have been us. Sowe did take the appropriate amount of
precautions and on the radio the fourwarnings of what might happen. And I
don't know that we were over hypingit. You're right, we were appropriately
hyping it because it could have turnedinto that. And luckily for us,

(11:20):
the winds shifted and we didn't getthe brunt of it. But what happened
in Palm Springs was pretty I meanthe interstate Interstate ten closed down down Aunt
Charleston obviously, yeah, yeah,yeah, And they're still dealing with the
devastation up there because they got eightinches of rain, Yeah Charleston, and
it washed out key roads and they'regoing to be cleaning up for a while.
Although I heard power was back toa portion of the area of Mount

(11:41):
Charleston that had lost power good duringthe hurricane's Tropical store State Roots were closed
of through Friday and then after thisweekend they should be openings that it does.
I'm looking at a video right nowand I'm like, jeez, they
were targeting Friday night. I don'tthis is tomorrow Fridays, So we hope
that's what happens, but some ofthem did look really bad. You're right,

(12:03):
that's scary, Like I didn't evenknow. I'm like, how are
you going to get it open byFriday? So don't quote me on that's
what they said there. I wouldn'tbe shocked if we heard today tomorrow it's
gonna need more time. We're gonnaneed a little more time. Please don't
everybody come up here this weekend?Yeah, seriously, the one time they
ask us not to go. Well, look, I mean it's gonna be
triple digit heat here again this weekend, so people might be looking to escape

(12:24):
and go up from Mount Charleston.So yeah, maybe that's not to get
the word out if you can't getup there, right, Yeah, I
would find all alternate plans on that. When does Mont Susan monsoon season wrap
up here in Nevada? September?Seem September, Okay, so we're getting
ready to go into September, soI'm curious to see what happens between now
and then. And it's funny youlook at the app and you see nothing

(12:45):
but sun, no way down.But here's the thing every day can't changed.
And next weekend I see that we'reback in the eighties and nineties and
clouds again. So it seems likethey're pretty good about predicting real storms,
but the monsoons you just don't know. So I'll wait and see what happens.
Yeah, planning your day morning ofis usually the better way to go
with that facts. But we're fine. We're not drowning anybody. Thank you

(13:07):
for your care. And I'm sureyou guys had a few people reach out
like I had nobody to reach out. I had a couple of people in
my California friends just because they werekind of hit a little hard too,
and they were like, are yougetting We're getting here, and I'm like
maybe, And I was, youknow, trying to share it on our
social media to what was happening,because I wanted to set the record straight
that it wasn't Some of the stuffthat you're seeing is just for your monger.

(13:28):
It's mongering, mongering, I trustyourself. I just don't know that
word that well. But anyway,we're fine. It's all good. It
rains, it floods, that's whathappened in Las Vegas. But we didn't
get anything worse than we normally had. So don't believe everything you see in
social media. However, if youwant accurate information Instagram, Twitter threads from

(13:52):
us a Living LV pod, it'snot. We absolutely share accurate information.
If you want a source you cancount on for Las Vegas, the Living
LV pod, not the Living LVpod on Instagram, Facebook not Facebook.
I'm taking over this podcast. Doit, do it? Do it?

(14:13):
Twitter, Instagram threads and Living LVpods. No news there, there is
no news. It's just us talkingabout what's going on in the news.
I already not seeing our Instagram story. I have some news, some news.
It up to date with all coolthings happening around our city. That's
true. I do. I liketo. I like to, you know,
repurpose everything that's going on here thatwe might not actually be talking about.
So yeah, you can find what'sgoing on in the city through through

(14:35):
there as well. Yeah no,no fear mongol barbecue. Now I'm hungry,
get far away. I think that'senough talking for me today.