In aftermath of Palm Springs traffic nightmare, city officials respond

In the aftermath of Friday’s traffic nightmare in Palm Springs that left drivers in hours at a standstill or crawl, city officials are responding.

“It was obviously one of those seldom rainstorms where we had as much in one day as we normally have in a year and that created a lot of problems,” said Palm Springs city manager David Ready.

Read: Massive traffic jams throughout the Coachella Valley

Thursday’s record rain turned roadways across the valley into rivers. The storm forced several swift water rescues and a gridlock through city streets.

“The intersection of Gene Autry and Ramon was so congested, there was people honking at each other. It got too crazy,” said Adeline Rojas, a local driver.

Traffic was so bad in Palm Springs Friday that cars were slowed. Many drivers stuck in the traffic jam brought up the lack of police presence, wondering what the city was doing to mitigate the problem.

“It needed some type of police presence because something was gonna, it felt like something was gonna get carried away,” Rojas said.

Ready responded to these concerns.

“Individual safety is a priority, so obviously, in this situation, we had people that were trapped, people that couldn’t get where they needed to be. We had a swift water rescue, a lot of traffic accidents, and then, of course, the traffic flow. So, we were trying to coordinate all those in a priority fashion,” Ready said.

News Channel 3’s Jake Ingrassia took a look inside the heart of Palm Springs’ emergency operation center.

“The residents can be assured that every resource we have is deployed. Everything that’s available, but when we have these kinds of events, there’s just a practicality to it is that we’re not gonna be able to get everything back to normal quickly,’ ready said.

Sgt. Mike Casavan, public information officer for the Palm Springs Police Department, said it’s all hands on deck for the department in situations like last week’s. Officers working their hardest to protect lives.

“As soon as people started getting stuck we wanted to get them out as quickly as possible and that’s what a lot of our officers were out doing,” Casavan said. “Believe me, if we had those assets available to us to be able to move the traffic along we would have done it we just simply didnt have the assets to do that.”

Officials said the Palm Springs city council will be briefed on the storm and repairs progress ahead of Wednesday’s meeting. Palm Springs is also working to secure state or federal aid as well.

You can reach Jake on Twitter, Facebook or email him at jake.ingrassia@kesq.com.