Living Beneath Las Vegas

Las Vegas was once the very definition of a boom town. But the boom went bust and as foreclosures rose, so did the city's homeless population, from 12,000 two years ago to 14,000 today. Yet there are fewer than a thousand beds in shelters, forcing many to seek shelter in the labyrinth of flood tunnels that snake beneath the city.

CBS News correspondent Seth Doane, left, is seen here walking the tunnels with journalist Matt O'Brien, who wrote a book about this elaborate subterranean world.

A look inside the flood tunnels that snake for more than 200 miles beneath Las Vegas, up to 40 feet below the ritzy casinos.

Here, hundrends -- maybe even a thousand -- of the city's homeless population escape the desert heat and the pressures of the world above.

Sali, left, and her partner Diego fled to these tunnels just six weeks ago. Sali used to worked for 21 years as a cashier at the Frontier Hotel - before it closed three years ago.

Diego came from Cuba in search of the American dream. Here, he uses the water runoff in the tunnels to shower.

A view from inside one of the tunnels under Las Vegas, looking out at daylight.