Palm Springs mobile home community prepares for rain
With rain expected on Tuesday, one Palm Springs community is hoping it doesn’t rain too hard.
Residents living at the Safari Mobile Home Park — located at 2601 Cherokee Way — are still cleaning up the last storm that tore through their community about 4 months ago.
Anette Manfra, a resident, said she never thought she’d have to get flood insurance while living in the desert, but the storm in September 2017 damaged her home and she is not taking any chances.
Fast water and mud flowed from a hillside right behind the mobile home park. Manfra said it took two months to repair her home, plus a hefty price tag.
“The first time we bought it we put in about $25,000. It was fixed beautiful. We put an additional $28,000 after the flood we had to remove everything. We had walls filled with water. The insolation was no good. We put in new walls, ceilings, lining, new appliances, new lighting, new counters, I mean I would say 90 percent of it,” said Manfra.
Now Manfra is wondering how future floods will be prevented.
Palm Spring’s City Manager Marcus Fuller, said the city is gearing up for the expected rain, including working with Riverside County Flood Control on a new storm drain project.
“It extends a storm drain up East Palm Canyon down Matthew Drive and we’ll have a new flood control basin and it will help pick up their un off. It wouldn’t solve the problem for Safari Mobile Home Park but it would protect the property down stream.”
The project is expected to be complete in the next two years. Fuller said an additional storm drain that would run through the mobile home park is potentially the next phase.
Until then, residents in the mobile home park are doing what they can to keep their homes safe.
“I’m going to extend that wall about 10 feet more. So if it comes down the road it’ll hit the wall and go into the road instead of my driveway,” said Manly McKay, a resident.
Officials advise people to use sand bags to protect their homes. A list of locations in the Coachella Valley and Riverside County that have sand bags available can be found here.
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