La Quinta prepares for possibility of more wet weather

The possibility of more rain this week comes as cleanup from last week’s flooding continues. La Quinta was one of the hardest hit cities, and officials are now preparing for the chances of more wet weather.

There’s still some obvious damage around the city of La Quinta and the Public Works Department has been working tirelessly to clean the streets, meet with residents who had major flooding and to clean out storm drains and catch basins which are still about half full of water.

To help alleviate any future flood issues this week, the city has crews prepared to pump out water. And, with extra help from three local contractors, the city was able to repair two of three sinkholes.

The biggest sinkhole, located at Desert Club and Calle Tampico, is still drying out. It cause the pavement to collapse outside of John Adams Elementary School.

“The channel is half full of water and there’s a 60-inch pipe that’s half full of water,” said La Quinta City Council Member Terry Henderson. “We can’t do much until we can get it empty. Total with asphalt, it’s going to be a couple more days.”

The remaining sinkhole is expected to be repaired and repaved by the end of the week. La Quinta will consider declaring a local emergency at Tuesday’s city council meeting. In that case, it could get state and federal funding to help with cleanup costs.

The public meeting begins at 4 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.