Downtown La Quinta hit hard by thunderstorm and rain

Monday’s rain swamped the city of La Quinta turning normally busy roadways into muddy rivers and lakes.

The heavy downpour left people with no way to get in or out of the downtown area because the major roadways were impassible.

Firefighters performed dozens of water rescues when drivers along Avenue 52 got caught in the fast-rising waters between Washington Drive and Cetrino across from the SilverRock Resort.

Patrick Tomlinson of Cal Fire said firefighters pulled 16 people from approximately 8 flooded vehicles Monday morning.

Tomlinson said, “The fire trucks were able to drive up and put them into the cab of the truck and pull them out.

One of those motorists was Jennifer Rubadou who said, “It just all of a sudden was a big flood so cars started getting water over them. So we stopped. We actually went up. We were one of the smart ones who went up on the cement.”

Nobody was injured there.

Washington Drive was flooded in several places as was Calle Tampico.

Both roadways were closed to all traffic for more than an hour Monday morning because of the deep water that had collected on them, and was flowing dangerously fast.

One motorist, Daniel Butcher, said he had to swim to safety after water surrounded his car on Washington Street.

Butcher said,”I was submerged two hours up to the window. I had to jump out the window and swim over to the people over there. It was that deep.”

A parking lot was flooded outside La Quinta City Hall as dozens of vehicles were left to flood.

Some were city-owned vehicles.

Others appeared to belong to employees, who gathered outside to look at the unusual sight.

Look back at flood damage from 1 year ago