Thunderstorms battered the Imperial Valley Tuesday.
The thunderstorm activity brought heavy rain , high winds , and flooding. Normally dry washes along Highway 78 were running and flooding the roadway. The highway was closed from Ogilby road to all Verde with a number of vehicles trapped between washouts. High winds knocked down utility poles and power lines allover the Imperial Valley with power outages resulting. Imperial Irrigation District crews have been working since a Monday night storm knocked out a major power line and blacked out much of the North Shore area of the Salton Sea. The Tuesday storm created even more problems intuit area. An estimated 1.5 inches of rain blanketed the north end of the Valley and National Weather Service radar reported one inch of rain in the Holtville and Calipatria areas. A number of traffic accidents were also reported.