Snow In The Mountains Cause For Flooding Concern
PALM SPRINGS – The storms from last week caused floods and road closures all over the valley. It also made for some nice scenery, but is that snow in the distance something to worry about?
“We do have close to 200 miles of flood control facilities,” says Jack Porrelli with the Coachella Valley Water District. Hesays the flood control in place is doing it’s job, but there is some concern once the snow melts. Not to mention more rainstorms expected this week.
“The water has no place to go right now. When the ground gets saturated it might as well be concrete. It’s the same thing. So what you will probably see with less water is flooding quicker at your intersections. If you had flooding before you might see it again,” Porrelli says.
When a storm comes through like the one we had last week, anywhere from 1,100 to 1,400 cubic feet of water rushes through the wash every second. To give you an idea of just how much water that is, one cubic foot of water is about the size of this basketball. Looking at the wash, imagine 1,400 basketballs going through here, every second.
“When you have flooding in the Palm Springs area, you have roadways that are crossing a riverbed, crossing a flood control channel and they’re not elevated in any way so until another solution is found this is going to be an ongoing process,” says Porrelli.
Because flooded roads are a city’s responsibility, Porrelli says you might want to plan ahead for more delays on your daily commute.
“In terms of cities looking at costs right now and things like that, it just doesn’t seem to be a high priority. If nobody loses their life and nobody loses their home then everybody has done their job even if it’s inconvenient,” Porrelli says.
