Stuck In The Mud: How Locals Fared Around Palm Springs After Hilary

The morning after Tropical Storm Hilary hit, Rick’s Restaurant in Palm Springs was bustling. Andy Mahaffey, the general manager, joked with staff and chatted with regulars at the restaurant, a local’s and visitor’s favorite since 1985.

“I just figured if we had enough staff show up, great, we'd open,” Mahaffey said. “If not, we'd just close and live to face another day. And to my surprise, everybody showed up.”

Andy Mahaffey is the general manager of Rick's Restaurant, a long-time favorite for locals and visitors alike in Palm Springs.

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The day before, Mahaffey decided to close a half hour early as the rain from Hilary’s arrival started in earnest. He drove some staff home himself and told everybody to show up the next morning if they wanted, but not take any risks. Some staff that lived further away were put up in a hotel down the street, owned by friends.

Mahaffey, who lives in Indio, said most of his tight knit staff live in Desert Hot Springs, Cathedral City and other areas that saw the worst flooding and mudflows. The whole area saw nearly a year’s worth of rain in a single day.

“Anybody that's been in Palm Springs for any length of time knows that when it rains, we flood,” Mahaffey said.

But Mahaffey said this storm was worse than even the major flooding they had in February 2019, when an atmospheric river led to snow melt and flash floods, wiping out all the routes in and out of the city. When it does rain here, which isn’t very often, that’s common.

The impacts of Hilary even closed the 10 for hours across some 30 miles.

“The planning when they built it was based on the desert not getting much rain,” Mahaffey said. “ It's tough here because the main ways to get in — Vista Chino, the 111 — they flood. And when they flood, we're stuck either not getting in or not getting out.”

Roads are washed out as Tropical Storm Hilary heads north into Palm Springs on Aug. 20, 2023.

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Several feet of thick mud

While the city of Palm Springs avoided the worst impacts, the scene was a different world just a few miles away. In Cathedral City, mudflows were as high as 6 feet at the peak of the storm. 46 people had to be rescued, many from homes inundated with several feet of mud.

Crews contracted by the city worked since the early morning to clear residential and major roads that were covered in feet of thick, sticky mud.

Mark Chambers stood knee deep in the mud, trying to dig out his stuck car.

“I got all the way down there and a guy pulled me out a little bit, and I got going and I got stuck again,” Chambers said. “So I'm in bad shape right now until I get somebody else to pull me out.”

Chambers said he lives on Vista Chino, a major road that saw some of the highest mud flows. He said they heard rushing water through the night.

“It was pretty bad 'cause we live right off the wash,” he said. “We didn't think it was gonna rain hard until it finally started, the bad part of the hurricane got here.”

Still, he stayed positive.

“I'm from back East where the mud is, so I'm used to the mud, but this is a different kind of mud,” he said with a chuckle. “But we'll make it. Just a couple of days of discomfort, but, you know, life goes on.”

Once clearing crews reached him, Chambers was on his way.

Cathedral City saw some of the heaviest flooding and mud flows from Tropical Storm Hilary.

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'It was crazy'

A little up the road, Rey Romero’s house was high enough above the mud flows in the street to not see damage. He knew he was one of the lucky ones.

“A friend of ours that was right here a while ago, helping us shovel all the mud, he said that one of his friends lives down the street right here and he sent him a picture of his house and inside the house the mud went, maybe, I wanna say about two, two and a half feet high,” Romero said.

Romero said he’s used to roads being shut down when it floods here, but this is the worst he’s ever seen.

“Oh, we have floods, yes,” Romero said. “But I've been here in the [Coachella] Valley since 1990 and it's the first time I’ve seen something like that … it was crazy.”

A young boy on a bike surveys recently cleared muddy streets of a residential neighborhood in Cathedral City the day after Tropical Storm Hilary passed through the area.

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A residential street in Cathedral City after Tropical Storm Hilary.

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Invest in infrastructure

As crews continued to clear roads and residents dealt with the aftermath, Mahaffey back at Rick’s Restaurant said he thinks the area got lucky this time.

“I would love to see from an infrastructure point of view, the city or the state, depending on who's responsible for various layers here, spend some more time safeguarding the roads so that we're not stranded,” he said.

Mahaffey has seen his fair share of hurricanes, having deployed to many while serving in the military. In 2005, he said he was sent to help with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina with the National Guard.

Gene Autry Trail was closed at Whitewater Wash in Palm Springs on Sunday in anticipation of heavy flooding brought by Tropical Storm Hilary. It's one of many roads often closed regularly when there's any kind of significant rain in the area.

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“I saw the bodies, I saw people wading through the water, people who have lost everything, loved ones, and pets,” Mahaffey said. “It was horrific. So you can't take nature for granted. It really can wreak havoc.”

He said he worries climate change will only make these extreme weather events worse.

While the science shows warming ocean temperatures driven by humans’ use of fossil fuels is supercharging hurricanes, the greatest threats here in California when it comes to flooding are increasingly extreme atmospheric rivers.

“Just because it hasn't happened in 80 years or a hundred years doesn't mean it's not gonna happen again,” Mahaffey said. “So I think it may become more of a regular occurrence. And we need to be ready.”

Meanwhile, for now, life returns to a certain level of normal in the desert, with clear blue skies and hot days in the forecast.

A car is partially submerged in floodwaters as Tropical Storm Hilary moves through the area on Aug. 20, 2023 in Cathedral City.

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