State of emergency declared in Calexico

IMPERIAL COUNTY, Calif. (KYMA) - Severe weather swept across Imperial County Thursday night, flooding streets and damaging several homes.

Calexico was hit the hardest, and the city has declared a state of emergency. Homes lost electricity during the storm, but the city says service has mostly returned.

"I saw out the window and saw all this, we just set up that shed like two months ago, and it was destroyed," said resident Fernanda Ahro.

City crews are now cleaning up, handling flooding, and checking for damage.

"The streets were flooded, there was some car that had water up to the hood," said Marco Batani, another local.

Batani said the storm was frightening to live through.

"Those poles fell, we had like six explosions, literally there was fire, sparks, and all these trees fell," he shared.

The Imperial Irrigation District (IID) shared an update on power restoration Friday afternoon.

"We're down to about 1,300 customers still out. We're planning to pick up about another 300 customers about midnight tonight. And we hope to have everyone up within the next 24 hours," said Paul Rodriguez, Deputy Power Manager with IID.