Cathedral City Declares Local Emergency

Cathedral City city manager declares local emergency

CATHEDRAL CITY — Due to unprecedented rainfall and flooding of local roadways, City Manager Charles McClendon shortly before 10 a.m. Monday declared a local emergency due to the critically dangerous impacts of Tropical Storm Hilary.

The Emergency Operations Center has also been activated.

Cathedral City joins the cities of Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, and Desert Hot Springs and in declaring a local emergency.

The City’s Public Works Department, Cathedral City Police, Cathedral City Fire Department teams and supporting agencies continue to respond to several areas across the city impacted by flooding produced by Tropical Storm Hilary, Communications & Events Manager Ryan Hunt said.

“We encourage everyone to stay off the roads today, if possible, as cleanup efforts remain ongoing throughout our community,” Cathedral City Mayor Rita Lamb said in a statement. “As we move into the recovery phase of this storm, I can assure you our city staff will do everything they can to help those in need. This was an unprecedented storm for our area, and we’re all in this together.”

CCFD and CCPD made multiple rescues for individuals and drivers overnight. Please continue to stay off the roads if you can. All road closures currently in place will likely remain closed today (Monday, Aug. 21, 2023) as crews continue cleanup efforts:

• Date Palm Drive between Vista Chino and 30th Ave. (closed in both directions)
• Varner Road from Date Palm Drive to Mountain View Road
• Ortega Road between Moreno Road and Via De Anza
• Los Gatos Road at Date Palm Drive
• Vista Chino at the wash per the direction of the City of Palm Springs

Multiple Coachella Valley cities, including Cathedral City, continue to experience issues with 911 phone lines and they are currently down. We ask residents to please call 760-770-0303 for any police- or fire-related matter. Frontier Communications continues to work on the problem, but there is no estimated time for repair.

While City Hall remains open to the public today, we ask for patience from our residents as the focus of city crews and staff is to help mitigate significant flooding issues, public safety response, and to assess the damage and need for repairs throughout Cathedral City. Many city services not related to Tropical Storm Hilary response could be delayed. All building inspections have been canceled for today, Monday, Aug. 21, 2023.

Burrtec is currently running all routes, but there may be delays and some areas where their crews can’t reach today. If there are areas they do run across with no access, they will make it up once cleared.

Please stay off the roads if you can as cleanup efforts are under way in our community and continue to follow the City’s Facebook page for regular updates, Hunt implored.