Las Vegas homeowner shares recovery efforts after devastating flood 1 year later

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Last year Mother Nature delivered a soggy Labor Day weekend, devasting homes and buildings.

“I was literally standing where the wall fell and it missed me by probably a foot,” Charles Barringer recalled. “If it wasn’t for hanging on the wall, I would’ve went with the water. “

Barringer recalled how flooded waters trapped him in his backyard near Tropicana Avenue and Nellis Boulevard. His neighbor pulled him to safety before he got swept away.

Last year’s Labor Day weekend brought torrential rain which knocked down his concrete wall and heavily damaged his property and the inside of his house. Those floodwaters pushed down dirt and mud from the other side of Charles’ wall to the end of this street to the other side of the neighborhood.

A year later things are looking much different.

“After the flood, the first thing we did was do the downstairs of the house. We had to pull out all the carpet, baseboards, plugs, and switches and had to repaint everything and put it all in,” added Barringer. “We had that done in the first 7 days and I did it all myself and after that, we had five truckloads of extra dirt in the backyard that we had to have trucked out.”

Barringer’s home is not in a flood zone and he had $30k worth of damages he had to fix out of pocket. Typical homeowners insurance does not cover damages to homes or belongings from floods. He also restored his concrete wall with additional reinforcements.

“What we did on the block wall, it’s kind of like a retaining wall, dug down real deep put down a concrete foundation, filled the blocks up four feet up, it’s concrete solid,” Barringer explained.

Now a row of flowers and a garden full of growing vegetables symbolize the growth and changes of his new backyard.

He said a year of labor goes a long way and wants to thank the community for helping him during a great time of need.

“I had my neighbors come in and they originally did my landscaping back here and after it was gone half of it got wiped out and they actually came over and put it back and then when it came time for me to pay them, they said no and they were happy to do it for me.” Barringer added. “The guy down the road, he also got hit pretty good and his contractor’s union came in and they cleaned up his yard. Everything can be replaced, except your loved ones.”

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