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Valley residents react to Monday’s whipping wind storm

People are still cleaning up after yesterday’s wind storm that knocked down trees and power lines across the Coachella Valley.

News Channel 3’s Dani Romero has more how residents are dealing with the impacts from the storm. 

Those gusty winds are back. They blew through a La Quinta neighborhood Monday afternoon causing havoc in the backyard.

For Bethany Alvarez, this was the view from her window. 

“I have never seen the palm trees whip like they were so close to whipping out of the ground,"said Alvarez. "I am like please don’t fly into the neighbors, please don’t hit someone’s house.” 

Luckily, for Alvarez, her palm trees were kept upright but she was left with a surprise. They had no hot water.  

“This gate actually opened up and hit the emergency shutoff for the gas so we were like out here at seven o’clock at night with the screw driver trying to get the thing back on," said Alvarez.

Others throughout the Coachella Valley weren’t so lucky. Viewers sent photos of trees uprooted and topped over sidewalks. There was an even a photo of a trampoline stuck between the fence where firefighters came to help. Several power lines were down. Dust was flying everywhere causing low visibility on the road. 

“I went outside because our BBQ cover came off and I went outside to stick under something and I had grit in my teeth," said Alvarez. "I felt like I was at the beach.” 

Some went to bed hearing those winds roar. 

“They were pretty bad last night I heard them while I was sleeping," said Alvarez.

On Tuesday, an Imperial Irrigation District crew was still working on the power lines on Adams Street in La Quinta. 

“This morning, we still had 142 customers out in the Coachella Valley area and that was because when we were working to restore power we found out there was this underground line that was deteriorated and gone bad," said Robert Schettler, Public Information Officer for Imperial Irrigation District.

A spokesperson from IID said they are checking their power poles yearly but are considering other options too. They want to remind the public to be on alert when a power line is down. 

“Don't panic when the power is off,  be sure that you don't go around any down power lines assume that all power lines are energized. “ 

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Dani Romero

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