Mecca shelter scheduled to close Wednesday
A shelter that houses some Mecca residents displaced by flooding was set to close Wednesday morning.
Riverside county said in a statement, “The decision to shut down the facility at Desert Mirage High School in Thermal was made after operators of the Desert Mobile Home Park, commonly called Duroville, repaired the park’s water system and tests showed the water not contaminated with bacteria.”
The shelter was scheduled to close down about 8 a.m. after serving breakfast.
“With all the potential for health problems following the damage to the water system, it was better to be safe and place the restrictions on water,” said Cameron Kaiser, county public health officer. “Now that the tests have come back negative, the recommendations can be lifted.”
County officials told park residents not to drink the park’s tap water and avoid contact with standing water.
The park is on the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla reservation.
A tanker stationed at the park provided residents with water for several days after getting flooded during a thunder storm that dropped five and a half inches of rain in just nine hours time.
That storm struck early September 11, with water more than two feet deep in some places.
Several areas in the Mecca-Thermal area saw flooded streets, mud and debris.
The shelter was operated by the Red Cross and provided hundreds of meals, a location for residents to take showers and housed dozens of people overnight.
