1967
Ironically, considering the entity’s name, water poured inside the Showboat Hotel (later Castaways) when flash floods hit Las Vegas, Nevada on Tuesday, August 8. At 2800 E. Fremont Street, east of the city, the gambling room, restaurant, and show and guestrooms were evacuated.
Other casinos were forced to do the same, including Caesars Palace, on the Strip, which had water, enough to swim, gush inside.
Also ironic is that the Showboat, which opened on the Friday before Labor Day weekend, 1954 (at a cost of $2 million), was hit the day before by an enormous Vegas monsoon. It nearly washed away the ‘Boat — paddlewheeler, smokestacks, and all. The Showboat was quite an anomaly for Sin City at the time: a Mississippi riverboat, down in the boondocks on Boulder Highway just beyond the venerable Green Shack restaurant.
The summer of ’67 was a bad one for Vegas floods. On June 19, the whole city was inundated, with thousands of motorists stranded. A drainage ditch overflowed at Caesars and there’s a pretty famous photo of cars submerged in the parking lot. I believe that particular flash flood started the move toward flood control throughout Las Vegas; it now consists of hundreds of miles of storm channels, tunnels, and washes.
Thanks, Deke, for the additional history, which is super fascinating.
Doresa