LAS VEGAS -- For many Las Vegas families, their lives were turned upside down when a thunderstorm created sudden flooding that damaged homes.
Those who suffered property damage from the flooding are struggling to move forward and get their lives back together.
"I go to hotel that the Red Cross rented for me and cry every night," said Larry Ballard, whose home was damaged in the flood.
The Las Vegas valley was flooded early last week after a heavy rainfall severely flooded parts of the valley.
Lloyd Ziel, of the American Red Cross, said the organization assigns a case worker to people in need of assistance.
"This is never easy," he said. "We hold people's hands until they say they are good."
The Ballard family is slowly assessing the damage left behind.
From the mud stained walls and cracked floors to the contaminated furniture and toys belonging to their 3-year-old son, Ballard said he never saw it coming.
"It just totally out of the blue hit me and wipe me out," he said.
Ballard said he is spending $160 a week to stay at the hotel, and being disabled, he said he can't afford it.
Ballard, who rents the home, said his landlord isn't charging him rent this month. Friends and even strangers are offering to help, but despite the help, new problems are popping up.
"We had to chase vagrants off this property because they try to break in," Ballard said. He said scam artists have been trying to sell him stuff his family either can't use or can't afford.
Ann Vandoren, whose home was also damaged in the flood, said she did 35 loads of laundry the other day in an attempt to get her family's life back to normal.
But the stress is wearing on her.
"I lost it," she said. "I just cried because I feel so helpless."
That feeling of helplessness is also something Christina Roberts is also feeling.
"I just want to go home," she said as she cried.
Roberts' home is among those damaged by rushing waters coming from the wash near the Desert Rose Golf Course. Those flood waters swept a worker on the golf course to his death.
Roberts said she likely won't be able to go back to her home, and is now looking for a new place to rent. She said her employer, the Plaza Hotel, is letting her family stay in one of their rooms free of charge.
"We were really lucky the Plaza took us in," she said. "That's all you can do when you have kids. Keep going and try not to break down in the process."
