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MOUNT CHARLESTON, Nev. (AP) — Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval went to a Mount Charleston hamlet on Monday to announce the state was stepping in to allow a flood-control project to be built before winter to protect homes beneath wildfire-scarred slopes.
The governor said work should begin soon on a temporary earthen flood-diversion berm above the Rainbow Canyon subdivision of Kyle Canyon, where authorities tallied more than $1 million in damage from flash flooding during an intense thunderstorm almost a month ago.
"It was critical that we move quickly to find a solution before another devastating flood or we lost the federal funding for the proposed structure," Sandoval said in a statement. He said he still hoped Clark County officials would collaborate in the project.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had offered in June to build a berm at a cost of about $880,000 on U.S. Forest Service land, but Clark County officials balked at assuming maintenance, ownership and liability.
Sandoval said the corps obtained the money to do the project, and the state would take responsibility.
Ten homes, several roads and a water pipe were damaged July 28 by mud and debris during an intense thunderstorm that officials said dumped about 2½ inches of rain within two hours.
The area had been left vulnerable after wide swaths of mountain hillsides were left bare by a lightning-sparked wildfire a year earlier. The fire, dubbed Carpenter 1, burned for more than three weeks and charred more than 43.5 square miles of the mountain about 30 miles from downtown Las Vegas.
It could take years for vegetation to regrow, officials have said.
Sandoval said during a visit to the area earlier this month that he hoped to broker an agreement to get the berm built.
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