Cathedral Canyon And Others Re-Open After Flooding, Vista Chino Still Closed

Dozens of Riverside County roads flooded or damaged in the series of rain storms remained closed today, but the county’s transportation chief said many will be reopened by day’s end.

“We’re trying to open all of them as quickly as possible,” county Department of Transportation Director Juan Perez told City News Service. “Some will have to remain shut. But the majority will be open this afternoon.”

As of 3 p.m., Farrell Drive, El Cielo, Golf Club Drive are open. Street crews are working to reopen the remaining roadways, but at this time, Indian Canyon Drive, Gene Autry Trail, Vista Chino, and Araby Drive remain CLOSED to all traffic.

In Coachella, city crews opened Avenue 50 at the wash.

Cathedral City crews opened Cathedral Canyon at 4:40 p.m.

Vista Chino is anyone’s guess at this point. Pat Milos, Cathedral City Public Works Director said he will be working throughout the weekend to make sure cleanup continues.

Juan Perez said Mockingbird Canyon Road in Woodcrest appeared to have sustained the worst damage.

“The road bed itself has eroded. It just washed out,” he said, attributing the damage to overflow from an adjacent creek.

Perez put the preliminary cost of road repairs at $1.5 million. He said the department will likely tap reserve funds to pay for the necessary work and will bill the state and federal governments for reimbursement, which could take several years.

“We have over 2,500 miles of roads we maintain,” Perez said. “On balance, the road system has fared very well thanks to the level of maintenance and other activities we’ve tried to do.”

“We have historical roads that are literally next to creeks,” he said. “When we do our repairs, we do our best to make those roads as durable as we can.

“The level of water and the number of days the rain fell created conditions that are pretty unusual for Southern California,” he added. “There are always weak spots that the water will find.”

The downpours may have contributed to pieces of concrete falling off the Interstate 215 overpass in downtown Riverside and landing on Chicago Avenue. The incident prompted Caltrans to shut down the eastbound 91 freeway connector to southbound I-215, as well as the eastbound 60 freeway transition to the 215.

Caltrans District 8 spokeswoman Kathy Boltz said crews were assessing the overpass to determine whether it was safe to reopen today.

Concrete came loose in the same general location in late August, leading to a partial closure of the busy 60/91/215 interchange.

The county declared a local emergency Tuesday as rainfall wreaked havoc, damaging public and private property.

Office of Emergency Services Director Peter Lent said there were two storm-related deaths — a 65-year-old pilot whose plane went down in the Lake Perris State Recreation Area Monday, and a 39-year-old woman whose vehicle was swallowed by flood waters in Canyon Lake Wednesday.

According to Lent, fire crews responded to about 1,000 incidents, including 50 water rescues, 300-plus traffic collisions, more than 125 flooding calls and 13 calls regarding downed power lines.

He said the county was in “clean-up and recovery” mode, but emphasized that residents need to continue to take precautions.

“There’s still mud and water out there,” he said. “People need to stay away from that, stay away from storm drains and don’t ignore road closure signs.”