Coachella Valley ringed By lightning and rain
A strong set of thunderstorms was over the mountainssouthwest of Palm Springs today, and threatened to inundate desert resortcities in the Coachella Valley.
The afternoon downpours came as several roads remained either flooded orcovered with downed power poles as a result of Saturday’s rain above PalmSprings, and across a board swath of desert east of Indio, firefighters saidtoday.
At 2:30, National Weather Service radar showed a solid line ofthunderstorms with very heavy rain both southeast and southwest of PalmSprings. Very-heavy rains were falling in Palm Canyon and along Route 74 in themountains above Rancho Mirage.
The NWS predicted that by 3 p.m., more water would flow north in thecanyons and drainages from the the Santa Rosa Mountains into the CoachellaValley.
Heavy rain was also predicted for the frshly-burned western slopes ofthe San Jacinto Mountains, with runoff heading down towards Valle Vista,Idyllwild, Pine Cove and Mountain Center.
Yet to Martha Sanchez, owner of Idyllwild Vacation Cabins, the inclementweather hasn’t had much of an impact to the community, especially sincebusiness was running smoothly. “It’s been raining, but that’s it,” she said.
Cal Fire Engineer Kal Kulbin was familiar with the flash flood warningbut said he hasn’t seen anything too adverse.
“There’s very light rain falling, and I’m up here in Pine Cove. You canhardly see it,” Kulbin said. “As of right now there’s nothing going on.”
On Saturday, heavy rain in the same mountains caused Palm Canyon Wash toflow across the roadway at Araby Drive in Palm Springs. That caused the dozenor so residents of the canyon south of Highway 111 to lose one of twoaccessways to their homes.
In the deserts of eastern Riverside County, as many as 40 power poleswere toppled by winds and flash flooding near Desert Center.
Southern California Edison officials said 367 accounts in the DesertCenter, Eagle Mountain and other desert areas were blacked out, spokesman PaulKlein said. As poles need to be rebuilt, full restoration of power was notexpected until Tuesday afternoon.
A portable generator was brought in to keep groundwater pumps running tosupply water to 150 homes near Lake Tamarisk, a dry desert lake about 45miles east of Indio.
The heavy storm struck the largely-uninhabited desert from Indio east toBlythe Saturday afternoon. Today, Eagle Mountain Road, Corn Springs Road andChuckwalla Valley roads were still being repaired, the California HighwayPatrol officers said.
But north of Needles, U.S. 95 was closed by flash flooding, and thehighway from Needles to Laughlin, Nev. was closed.
