Weather takes Coachella Valley, nearby areas by storm

Floodwaters closed down major roads in the Coachella valley.

At the Whitewater Preserve, a U.S. mail carrier braved dangerous conditions to complete the mail route.

“I got out of the shower and heard a bunch of rumbling and everything, and I looked out the window and this part of the street was just flooded with rocks tumbling all down the road. The water was up high and I thought, ‘Oh, it looks like a river out there,” one Cherry Valley resident said.

Residents in a community near Beaumont spent Friday afternoon cleaning up after flooding on their street forced members ofone family out of their home.

“We’ve had rains like this before and this has never happened. We’ve been here 15 years and this is the first time we’ve seen this,” Beaumont resident Kim Smith said.

Two to 3 inches of flood damage — much of it mud — was reported in the areas burned by the Bogart Fire. As the winter storm moved to the east, the day was tied in a bow with rainbows brightening up the Valley sky.