Nevada Army National Guard Soldiers were activated last winter after record-breaking precipitation in the mountain- and valley-flooded communities in the northern region
of the State.
Snow in the Sierra Nevada and Carson Ranges last January was 200 percent more than normal. With an average elevation of 10,500 feet, the winter precipitation amounted to thousands of acres of snow. In December 2016, massive amounts of rainfall in the foothills and valleys east of the Sierra broke the century-old annual rainfall record just four months into the season. The rain brought significant, but not yet disaster-level, flooding to the region. This initial flooding caused damage to local water pipes, leaving rural communities without potable water.
“In some areas, the water was so deep the only way we could avoid contact was to stand on top of the flatbed trucks while we built the HESCO walls,” said SSG Sather. “My direction to my Soldiers was simple ‘DO NOT touch the water’.”
Then the disaster came. Unseasonably warm temperatures caused faster than normal melting of the record-breaking snowfall. Water from the snow combined with floodwater from the December rains that had not yet fully subsided and created one of the worst major floods the State of Nevada has ever seen. Water rushed into local streams and rivers, spilled into reservoirs and lakes and descended upon Lemmon Valley, located about 10 miles north of Reno.
Nevada normally averages less than 10 inches of precipitation a year and is listed as the driest State in the country. Parts of the State had been experiencing a drought for several years. Ironically, local residents sometimes quipped that droughts end with floods.
President Donald Trump approved Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval’s request for a Presidential Declaration of Disaster for northern Nevada in February 2017. The declaration received an extension through March 2017, at which point the National Guard was activated. By mid-March, 140 National Guard members were activated in response to the floods, which is more than the number activated in response to wildfires in the State brought on by the drought. In fact, this was the State’s largest National Guard operation of its kind in 20 years. While the entire northern region of Nevada was under the declaration of disaster – including Washoe County, Elko County, Humboldt County and Douglas County – Lemmon Valley in Washoe County sustained the brunt of the flooding.
For three weeks, Guard members filled and placed more than 10,000 sandbags to protect homes. Four miles of HESCO walls, using 12,000 cubic yards of sand, were built in front of homes, septic tanks and wells to hold back the floodwaters. Units activated were from the Nevada Army National Guard’s 757th Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1895th Transportation Company, 609th Engineer Company, 485th Military Police Company and the 150th Maintenance Company, according to Battle Born, a publication of the Nevada National Guard. Airmen came from the Nevada Air National Guard’s 152nd Security Forces Squadron and the 152nd Civil Engineer Squadron.
