For those who haven't heard about them, the "tunnels" that this reader's referring to are the storm drains that run under the Las Vegas Strip and much of the surrounding valley. In total, there are some 200 miles of them. The tunnels, and the alternate universe that inhabits them, were brought to light by Huntington Press author Matt O'Brien.
Back when he was managing editor of alt Las Vegas weekly CityLife, O'Brien became intrigued by the story of a murderer who'd eluded police by vanishing into the city's subterranean flood-control system. He followed in the footsteps of the psycho-killer and found not him, but instead a host of other people who reside in the storm drains underneath Las Vegas. He recorded his experiences in the internationally acclaimed best-seller, Beneath the Neon.
As the book's subtitle -- Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas -- suggests, this unlit, un-airconditioned labyrinth is not a safe place and is certainly not somewhere we'd recommend anyone visiting, unless you're accompanied by an aficionado like Matt, who's spent more hours than he cares to remember down there over the past decade. (When he's not escorting journalists, O'Brien's often helping out those who live "beneath the neon" via Shine A Light, the non-profit he founded that provides water, food, clothes, blankets, drug counseling, and other services to the tunnel dwellers.)
Not only are the tunnels extremely dark, but they're subject to the dangerous effects of the flash-flooding that they were originally constructed to relieve, of which we've experienced a lot recently. We don't have figures on how many people drown in them annually, but several known deaths have been recorded in recent years. Randy John Northrup was one of the unlucky ones. A few days after a November 2002 rainstorm, his body was discovered half-buried in the Las Vegas Wash. He was 47 years old. Consider that anyone who's lived in the tunnels for any length of time has a "flood plan" of some sort; it's even more treacherous for the uninitiated.
Factor in that many of the people living down there, estimated to number as many as 700, are suffering from mental illness and/or drug problems (experiences O'Brien shares in the book include learning how to make crystal meth and partying with naked crackheads), and you'll understand why the storm drains are anything but some kind of tourist-friendly attraction with guided tours, like the Roman catacombs, and are in fact somewhere we'd strongly advise you to stay well away from.
Plus, there are a lot of people who do, for better or worse, currently call Las Vegas' underground flood-control system their home, and the residents would prefer to have their privacy respected.
If you want a flavor of what it's really like down there, we have to recommend that you check out Matt O'Brien's book, Beneath the Neon, which is illustrated with Danny Mollohan's provocative black and white photography. We've reproduced a few of his images below, to give you a flavor.
To see how elaborate some of the living spaces are, check out this September, 2009 feature from the U.K.'s The Sun newspaper, which really captures visually what life in the tunnels is like -- on a good day.
