Storm looms ahead, businesses prepare for the worst

Almost a year ago to the day, a wall of water broke a temporary Eagle Canyon Dam and cascaded into Cathedral City.

“The water’s coming in, the water’s coming in! The mountain is coming down. Everything was crazy,” Christine Corio, owner of Celebrity Consignments, recalled from last year’s flood.

“I saw the water coming into Del Taco, then it started coming over here. A few minutes and we were flooded. Mud, rock. Everything,” Ahmad Hamdan, clerk at 111 Smoke Shop, said.

This weekend, the Coachella Valley faces a storm… and a possibility for a deja vu.

“It’s so scary because I don’t know that anything has changed as far as the drainage system and stuff,” Corio said.

The county said construction on the new Eagle Canyon Dam should be completed in early 2014. Right now, that leaves businesses to fend for themselves.

“I’m gonna shut the door and put some towels. That’s all I can do,” Ham dan said.

“We do have sandbags and stuff but it doesn’t keep the mud out and the water out completely,” Corio said.

Nearby residents told us they cleared their floors, leaving little for the water to potentially damage, but businesses don’t have that luxury.

“I have all these showcases around, as you can see, where am I going to lift it? Even if I lift it it’s not easy, a lot of glass,” Hamdan said.

Adding to the predicament these businesses are in, the storm might hit after hours, when they’re closed.

“We’ll have to set them up and be ready in case it’s here when nobody’s here . When it happens,” Corio said.

And, hope for the best.