First responders preparing residents for rain

For more than 20 years, Joel Johnson’s family have been helping people at their bike shop in Thousand Palms.

A place he said that’s no stranger to flooding, after suffering damage from nearly three feet of rain in 1977.

“That afternoon, we had gone to L.A. and came back, and I didn’t even knew there was flooding until the next day when I got over here,” Johnson said. “There was this fine line of silt and clay that dried and formed, and you had to keep wetting it before you could get it up.”

As many throughout the Southland are bracing for significant rainfall — local fire crews are helping residents prepare hoping to prevent accidents on the road, and any damage to homes.

“We’ll get runoff from the mountains, because they’re primarily rocky, and they don’t hold the water the way it does in other areas,” CAL FIRE Battalion Chief Mark Brooks said. “So, it’ll come down typically into neighborhoods that are up against the mountainsides.”

Brooks says one way residents can prepare for potential flooding is by picking up free sandbags at local fire stations and hardware stores around the valley.

As those like Johnson gear up for the days ahead, hoping history doesn’t repeat itself.

“It’s pretty tight now,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t like it was in 1977. It was a little bit more loosely opened.”

Brooks said you can pick up empty sand bags at local fire stations and hardware stores — and can fill them up at different places around the county.

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