The Desert Hot Springs City Council Tuesday afternoon ratified a state of emergency in response to the impacts of Tropical Storm Hilary.
“We’ve had commitments from our legislators at the federal level, the state level and the county level to come out and assess and do everything they can to assist us financially,” Mayor Scott Matas said during the emergency meeting. “Our first step is to declare the state of emergency, which was done by the city manager yesterday.”
Matas said the city could have waited — the council has a regular meeting scheduled for Sept. 5 — but said there was no reason to delay the ratification.
“We want to make sure the residents feel safe, and that the money’s going to be processed as quickly as possible for the repairs,” he said.
Shane Reichardt, spokesperson for the Riverside County Emergency Management District, said that in the hills above Desert Hot Springs, there were rain gauges showing the area received 13 inches of rain — the equivalent of a 1,000-year storm.
“In my career, this is the first 1,000-year storm that I’ve ever experienced,” he said. “And that’s probably a lot of the reason why we’ve seen some of the impacts we have.”
Reichardt said the county was continuing its damage assessment, which he said would take a couple of more days, and beginning the recovery process.
“We’re clearing out roads, working to clear trees, fallen trees and debris and working with our power companies to restore power,” he said. “Caltrans is working feverishly on Interstate 10 in the Coachella Valley to clear all the mud and debris that came out onto the freeway.”
Reichardt said impacts like those to the highway were “obvious,” but the impacts to smaller and more remote communities in the county might not be immediately known or visible.
“We expect that it will probably take a couple days to fully go through and discover the majority of the damages and then come up with a plan,” he said. “On public lands, we’re working with our transportation department, our flood control departments and all of our various resources to deal with the public lands.”
As for residents who experienced damage to their property, Reichardt said the county was looking at what services might be available to them and was in conversation with nonprofits like the American Red Cross for immediate shelter needs, Team Rubicon for possible help with recovery efforts and TODEC Legal Center for immigrant and farmworker communities.
The Inland Empire Community Foundation (IECF) is currently raising funds through its disaster relief funds — one for Riverside County and the other for San Bernardino County — to help nonprofits like TODEC support the region’s most vulnerable residents.
“With the ability to mobilize funds for nonprofits so they reach our neighbors who are most in need, we invite community members to donate today to the IECF Disaster Relief Funds,” Jeremy Hobbs, IECF board vice chair, said. “As a region, we are not just weathering the storm, but building a brighter future, rooted in compassion, solidarity, and enduring care.”
Reichardt said storms like the one the region just experienced are why residents should listen to the advice of county officials to be prepared for an emergency — whether that emergency is a fire, flood or earthquake.
“We look at what we saw during that storm, and even though we’ve seen damages, what we didn’t see was loss of life, and we’ve not had any deaths reported to us as a result of the storm,” he said. “And that tells us that the public was hearing the message to avoid unnecessary travel, to take preparation measures in advance of the storm. That to us is our first success.”
Riverside County residents are encouraged to sign up for Alert RivCo, which provides those who register with alerts from emergency management personnel in the event of an emergency. Those in the communities of Banning, Corona, Hemet, Moreno Valley, Palm Springs, the city of Riverside and Temecula are also encouraged to sign up for their community’s emergency alert system.
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