Clean up continues in wash areas of Palm Springs
Clean up is continuing in the wash areas of Palm Springs that were affected by the Valentine’s Day flood.
The memories of the massive flooding in Palm Springs back in February are still fresh in the minds of some locals at Araby Cove.
“It was amazing. I haven’t seen it extend that far or wide for about 20 years,” Jennifer Hudson, a resident, said.
Now, that raging river is dry sediment-filled wash raising some concerns on how it would hold up in heavy rain.
“The plant material that’s been washed down. The water’s going to flow more swiftly down the valley,” she said.
The Riverside County Flood Control District says crews have been clearing the wash areas since June, focusing its efforts first on Tahquitz Creek before moving on to Palm Canyon Wash. It says more than 300,000 cubic yards of dirt are projected to be removed in those two areas. Crews had to wait a few months after the storm to work as permits were sorted out with various stakeholders.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/1153405371010179072″,”author_name”:”Jeremy Chen”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Clean up continues in the wash areas of &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/PalmSprings?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#PalmSprings&#lt;/a&#gt;. I’ll have more on the progress in anticipation of possible showers this week coming up at 6 p.m. on &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/KESQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@KESQ&#lt;/a&#gt;. &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/UlLEgmFucp”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/UlLEgmFucp&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Jeremy Chen (@JeremyChenKESQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/1153405371010179072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;July 22, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
“We’re dealing with a hodgepodge of property owners. We’re dealing with Bureau of Indian Affairs, the city of Palm Springs, dealing with some private property owners,” Henry Olivo, chief of operations and maintenance for the Riverside County Flood Control District, said.
The district says the work they’ve done so far should help address any potential rain in Tahquitz Creek and acknowledge where the rain hits can be spotty.
“Monsoons can be so unpredictable. It can rain in certain spots and certain areas and of course just down the block, they can say ‘What are you talking about?’,” Olivo said.
Residents say they’ve seen progress at the wash.
“They’ve done a lot of work. Hats off to the city for getting in there and getting after. It took a little time,” Rob Hudson of Palm Springs, said.
Ultimately, they don’t think the rain will be as bad as the February storms, and actually, welcome some relief from the summer heat.
“We’re kind of looking forward to it. A little rain the desert is always kind of nice,” Hudson said.
The district says they are looking to have the Tahquitz Creek project completed in four to six weeks. They are also in the process of finding a contractor for the Palm Canyon Wash project.
