Heavy rain and winds whip desert, drivers encounter difficulty
There’s snow at the Tram, mighty gusts of wind in the San Gorgonio Pass and beyond, and flooding in Palm Springs. A storm front that rolled into Southern California has caused headaches across the region, and out here in the desert, some residents are struggling with travel.
“Stupid people who don’t know how to drive in the rain,” said Jessica Cipollini, a local driver. “They brake a lot which causes hydroplanes which makes them go in the wrong lanes, then you have the truckers who want to be in the other lanes because the further right you go on the freeways are where most of the puddles are.”
But some people’s attitudes will skew more positive about the out of the ordinary weather.
“Fun to be here – we got a number of days of sunshine, so a little rain’s not gonna hurt anyone. It’s great!” said Gerry Racich, who is in town visiting from Canada.
Regardless of perspective, there is certainty in the inconveniences caused; Indian Canyon Drive is closed south of Interstate-10 in Palm Springs, and VillageFest has been canceled.
Some drivers saying people on the road were taking it slow.
The traffic of course backs up because they’re not comfortable with the rain since Southern California’s not really known for it,” Shirley Fluker said. “They kind of slow down but it bothers me more that they slow down in the fast lane. It’s okay when you’re not comfortable get in the slow lane and drive whatever you wanna drive.”
A bit later in the day, the sun came out in parts of the valley, but windy conditions and raindrops stuck around.
“Right now its nice and sunny, a little cool breezy thing going on,” said Sherman Hawley in Palm Desert. “I don’t like it to stick around to cause us problems driving and flooding.”
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