LAS VEGAS >> Monsoonal rains and thunderstorms overtook Las Vegas on Thursday evening for the second night in a row, causing flash flooding that turned parts of the Strip into rivers.

Up to an inch of rain fell on the city in about two hours — about half the rainfall for this year in an area that had been suffering a drought, said Andy Gorelow, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Nevada. Winds reached up to 71 mph in the Las Vegas Valley, almost the speed of a Category 1 hurricane.

Videos showed casinos flooding and cars getting stuck on roads. About 7,600 people were left without power Thursday evening after the thunderstorm, according to local reports. By Friday morning, many of the outages were fixed, according to a Nevada Energy outage map.

On Friday morning, a local office of the state Department of Motor Vehicles had to open late because of water damage.

— The New York Times