In 2024, former tunnel dweller Paul Vautrinot, now executive director of ShineALight, mobilized volunteers to deliver aid to 1,500 residents in Las Vegas’s 600‑mile flood‑tunnel network.
The concrete passages that snake beneath the desert city were originally built to divert flash‑rainwater, stretching 600 miles and cutting through neighborhoods adjacent to Caesars Palace, the Flamingo, and the Rio. Some shafts are only four feet tall, while others wide enough for two people to walk side by side. According to ShineALight outreach director Robert Banghart, roughly 1,500 people now call these tunnels home. A 34‑year‑old woman named Maria says the tunnel feels like a “family,” but staying underground has made it harder to leave.
Residents have turned the tunnels into makeshift kitchens, laundry spaces, and even art galleries, but the danger of sudden floodwater remains ever‑present. A storm last summer turned a quiet passage into a torrent that swept a teenager out of the tunnel, an incident Deseret News reported on July 18, 2023. The same tunnels, only a few feet above the surface in places, can become deadly within minutes of heavy rain.
ShineALight, guided by Vautrinot’s experience, offers food, clean water, and counseling, and a pilot housing program aims to relocate 250 residents to temporary shelters by October. Banghart says volunteers visit every Saturday, bringing peanut butter, jelly, bottled water, and first‑aid kits. City officials plan to convene a meeting in September to discuss permanent solutions for the underground community.