Cathedral City Officials Prepare Both City And Residents For Thursday’s Forecasted Rain

With rain forecasted to hit the Coachella Valley as soon as tomorrow morning, officials and local residents are preparing to face what could come.

Over in the West end of the valley, Cathedral City officials say they’ve prepared to prevent any possible trouble areas from flooding, days in advance.

“People don’t realize that even though we got these beautiful sunny days today and yesterday, the Coachella Valley does get rain and when it rains it comes down.” John Corella, the Director of the Public Works for the City of Cathedral City says.

The city says they’re doing their best to prepare both the overall city and their residents for Thursday morning’s rain, including, preparing all streets that could potentially flood.

“Putting out barricades in locations where we potentially know that if we get a lot of rain that we didn’t count on, that we might have to close the lane and make it a little safer for traffic to flow through there.” Corella adds.

The city’s public works teams run their standard route, cleaning drains throughout the community weekly, but on days leading up to rainy weather, they take it up a notch.

“So we’re trying to just make sure everything is cleaned, picked up. We got to make sure nothing is in front of the drain, so nothing can kind of clog the drain. Right now we’re going to pick up all the debris.” Carlos Rodriguez, the Public Works Supervisor for the City of Cathedral City says.

Some residents I spoke to say they’re preparing too. Gathering extra elements provided for them by some of the city’s fire stations, like sandbags. 

The city adds if residents want to prepare their own homes, they too can take part.

“In front of their house, if they can look at the curb and gutter and maybe help the city by cleaning it up because any debris that’s in the curb and gutter will end up in the storm drain later and it could end up plugging up the storm drain.” Corella says.

The city warns drivers to drive with caution when hitting the roads, particularly around the streets that might flood like Vista Chino and Date Palm Drive.

If your property does happen to have built up debris in its drains, they ask residents, again to clear it up to avoid any issues.