Vegas Downpour

Surrounded by floodwaters, Phil Hicks sticks his head out of the sun roof of his car to make a cell phone call in Las Vegas, Aug. 19, 2003. Hicks was stranded in a parking lot for several hours, waiting for the water to recede after a severe storm swept over the valley, causing major flooding.

Hesitant to cross the flooded intersection at Gowan Road, motorists stack up on northbound Rancho Drive in Las Vegas, Aug. 19, 2003. Powerful thunderstorms dumped as much as 3 inches of rain on parts of the desert city.

Milton Evangelista runs through the rain and hail to his car after coming out of a Las Vegas grocery store, Aug. 19, 2003.

An unidentified man looks over a block wall into a flooded home, Aug. 19, 2003, in northwest Las Vegas.

Las Vegas residents cross a flooded street, Aug. 19, 2003, in northwest Las Vegas.

Members of the Las Vegas Fire and Rescue Department are rescued from a fire truck caught in floodwaters, Aug. 19, 2003.

Juliette Lopez sits in her car surrounded by floodwaters in Las Vegas, Aug. 19, 2003. The water had picked up her car and carried it a few blocks before it caught on a pole. Lopez made it safely out of the car.

Pamela Cantwell climbs from her stalled car over a flooded Las Vegas freeway interchange into the car of off-duty police officer John Somaduroff, Aug. 19, 2003.

Las Vegas firefighters carry two boys across a flooded road in Las Vegas, Aug. 19, 2003. The boys had become stranded in a stalled car and were unhurt in the incident.