Indio and La Quinta waterlogged after Sunday’s flash flooding

Sunday’s storm hit parts of Indio and La Quinta very hard. Some areas got an inch of rain in about an hour, it was too much too fast for the area to handle. Streets were turned into rivers and neighborhoods into lakes.

“I’ve never seen it this bad before, never this bad,” said Indio resident Tristan Garcia.

At the height of Sunday’s storm, people in Las Brisas on Avenue 48 in Indio found themselves with lakefront property.

“It was knee high over where we are in the basin, where the park used to be it was over the fence and above your knees, it was complete ciaos,” said Garcia.

The water was so deep, only high clearance vehicles could get through the one entrance still accessible.

“We were literally sealed in here,” said Garcia.

That was then, now it’s a big improvement, but there is still a lot of water.

“We’ve had our rain storms, but to this extend I’ve never seen it,” said Garcia. That’s why crews arrived to help get rid of it.

It was a similar scene all over Indio and La Quinta, crews trying to clear the way for a possible round 2 of flooding.

“Gosh I hope not, I don’t know how much more it can take,” said La Quinta resident Cam Shaffer.

“That is why my dad is bringing home sandbags just in case because I have never seen it get that high up on a garage, that is pretty scary,” said Garcia.

“We are still keeping our eye on everything,” said Indian Wells resident Gregg Spierling.

As the water receded, we can see the damage left behind. The ground underneath Ave 48 at Arabia got washed way. Under this sidewalk, a dark hole threatening to get bigger.

Work is already underway to fix a section of Adams at Blackhawk that collapsed with the rushing water. The unstable ground forced the intersection closed right next to La Quinta High School, crews hope to have it fixed in time for the start of school next Monday.

“All of a sudden it started raining and then it started pouring and we had water just rushing off the roof of the covered patio and we had about a foot deep lake for a couple of hours,” said Shaffer.

Several intersections in La Quinta turned into impassable lakes.

“I have never seen it rain so hard so quickly and so much in such a short amount of time I’ve been out here since 1979,” said Spierling.

Several cars got stranded at Ave 50 and Eisenhower and crews rescued people.

“I could see there was quite a lot of water coming up on the banks, it was something. I’m glad I stayed home,” said Shaffer.

The owner of this car wishes he stayed home. Over the phone he told us he was in town for the day to play golf, but he was forced to abandoned his car when the waters rose. Now, the car sits, surrounded by mud.

“I just couldn’t believe how intense it was,” said Spierling.

The water gone just as quickly as it came.