La Quinta residents and firefighters prepare for another storm

Jaclyn Underwood of La Quinta is still picking up the pieces from last weeks storm that destroyed a retaining wall in her backyard sending a foot of mud into her home.

“So the next time it comes down it will hit the house and probably break the windows and go all inside the house instead of just muddy water,” said Underwood.

With rain in the forecast, she tells us she’s praying it doesn’t happen again.

“That’s about all we can do because we can’t put a retaining wall up there in a couple of days,” Underwood added.

Cal Fire Batallion Chief, Rick Griggs, says they’re ready for whatever weather strikes next.

“We’re prepared for it,” said Griggs. “This station is prepared for performing water rescues 24/7, 365 days a year, staffed, trained.”

Fire Station 33 in Palm Desert is one of two in Riverside County that has a trained water rescue team that can perform swift water rescues anywhere in the valley.

“And their dedicated mission is for water rescue,” added Griggs. “They do have all the equipment, tools, protective equipment to make that.”

Each member of the team goes through a five day rescue training program and is re-certified every three years. Their skills were put to the test in a September storm.

“We assisted a number of people to safety out of their vehicles to dry land or as dry as it was going to be for that day,” mentioned Griggs.

“I’m just hoping that it is going to go south of us because we may end up having to start all over again,” concluded Underwood.