July 15th brought almost one inch of rain to the Las Vegas Valley and flooding to the Linq Hotel Parking Garage. The parking garage floods as it has since its days as the Imperial Palace. We know it happens, and are constantly reminded when it rains. “Why not fix it?” The bottom line is that there doesn’t appear to be a feasible fix until LINQ is imploded and something new is erected in its place. The LINQ, formerly the Imperial Palace, was built smack dab on top of a natural feature known as "The Flamingo Wash," which is essentially a waterway that drains water from the Las Vegas Valley toward Lake Mead. The wash, once an above-ground stream, now runs through man-made tunnels beneath Interstate 15, Caesars Palace, and the Vegas Strip to LINQ where it “daylights” or empties out in the first level of the parking garage. The water flows through the LINQ parking garage (stranding any cars parked in the upper levels), down LINQ’s driveway, and into a duct behind the ramp that whisks the water away. Once the rain stops, the LINQ floodwaters generally clear pretty quickly, and it’s back to business as usual. Generally, only parking operations are affected and the rest of the business goes on as it always would. The crazy thing is, the system was designed to do exactly that. .... ???
