Hundreds of Imperial Valley residents were still without power Tuesday afternoon after heavy rains from a monsoon storm washed through the desert region a day earlier, toppling power poles and cutting off electricity for thousands of homes.
The Imperial Irrigation District (IID) said more than 4,000 customers from Bombay Beach on the north end of the Salton Sea to Calexico in the south reported outages late Monday and early Tuesday. IID is a public utility and the Imperial Valley’s main power and water provider.
IID spokesperson Robert Schettler said that the agency had brought many of those homes back online. But on Tuesday afternoon, he said crews were still working to restore power for close to 400 customers, many of them in Brawley and Calexico.
Schettler said the agency was facing “serious damages” to its power lines and other infrastructure. He said they didn’t know how long it would take to complete the full repairs but said restoring power was their first priority.
“Our immediate concern is getting power back on to everybody who doesn’t have it,” he told KPBS Tuesday morning.
The National Weather Service first issued a flood watch for parts of southeast California and southwest Arizona in the early hours of Monday morning. The weather agency warned that heavy rain and thunderstorms could bring strong winds, kick up dust and trigger flash flooding.
Rain began to fall around 2:45 p.m. on Monday afternoon. The rain was accompanied by heavy winds and thunderstorms that knocked down nearly 300 IID power poles, according to Schettler.
Further east, the monsoon rains also sent blackouts and a massive dust storm rolling across parts of Arizona.
The most severe flooding took place near Westmoreland, just south of the Salton Sea, IID officials said. There, floodwaters washed across State Route 86, trapping cars and trucks and prompting the United States Coast Guard to launch a helicopter from San Diego.
Jeremy Hamilton, a records clerk with the Imperial County Sheriff’s Office, said they had not received any reports of any deaths related to the storm.
The Imperial Valley has endured several damaging storms in the last few years.
In September 2023, a monsoon storm sent water surging over the banks of a northern Imperial County canal and inundated the town of Niland. The rains also knocked out power in Niland and other parts of the valley.
In January 2024, city officials in Calexico declared a local emergency after the New River flooded its banks during another major rainstorm.
Rural communities across the U.S. face increasing risks from floods. Climate change, fueled by human-caused emissions, is driving more intense and more frequent rainstorms. Those events can be catastrophic for rural areas where people are more likely to be poor and rely on vulnerable industries like farming or mining.
In the Imperial Valley, power outages can also pose a risk during the scorching summer months.
Temperatures have dipped since last week, when an extreme heat wave gripped much of the western U.S. But Tuesday was still expected to be near 100 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
Weather officials also expected water from the storm to linger in the air, making it feel more humid and the heat feel more oppressive.
Schettler said anyone who loses power should report the outage using IID’s customer portal.
IID can monitor most outages that occur. But he said they have trouble seeing outages in more remote parts of the valley, where the agency has to manually inspect power lines to troubleshoot any issues.
Schettler also advised anyone who has lost power to seek help at a local cooling center.
County public health officials maintain a list of free cool centers with air conditioning and water.
