Quartz Hill Starts Mopping Up Mud and Debris : Antelope Valley: Residents blame the flooding on the failure of a catch basin. But Lancaster officials deny the charge.

Quartz Hill residents Thursday began cleaning up the torrent of mud and debris that washed through the Antelope Valley town where a rain-swollen catch basin failed the day before, and local officials traded blame over the flooding.

During a mostly rain-free day, homeowners bracing for an even heavier storm this weekend spent Thursday clearing water from their homes and mud from their yards in a two-square-mile area of the rural community southwest of Lancaster. Crews of inmates from county jail camps filled sandbags.

Calling the flooding the worst in memory, homeowners joined officials in blaming the flooding on the failure of the basin, a charge Lancaster city officials denied.

“When that basin let go, that was the end of that,” said Jeff Hartman, 25, whose rented house stands directly in the stream of onrushing water. He spent most of Thursday vacuuming water out of his home and piling belongings on beds to keep them dry.

Lancaster, Palmdale and Los Angeles County officials were still trying to tally the damage. There were no reported injuries. But sheriff’s deputies estimated that 75 houses and 25 businesses suffered flood damage, while fire officials figured hundreds of houses were damaged. County Office of Emergency Management officials said damage may run to several million dollars.

At the peak of the flooding Wednesday afternoon, water up to three feet deep raced through Quartz Hill, turning streets into impassable canals, tearing up pavement, washing deep gullies in roadside shoulders and covering residents’ lots with water and mud.

By Thursday afternoon, a smaller but steady stream of water continued flowing out of the broken basin and fanning out into gutters, but no longer covering streets. The hardest-hit area was from 45th to 55th streets west and between avenues K and M, city and county officials said.

Lancaster Public Works Director Jeff Long said a 20-foot portion of the overflowing basin’s earth embankment collapsed Wednesday afternoon, dumping 10 million to 20 million gallons of water north into surrounding areas. The 11-acre basin can hold 50 million gallons.

Long said Lancaster’s basin was overwhelmed by runoff from housing developments to the south in Palmdale, blaming incomplete county and Palmdale flood control projects. Floodwaters in the Quartz Hill area had already peaked and were receding when the basin failed and sent the situation out of control, he said.

However, residents and other officials strongly disagreed, saying the area has had many past storms with heavier rain but never such severe flooding. They said the basin, a $200,000 Lancaster project only 90% complete, held the huge amount of rainwater and then released it in a torrent.

They said the earth basin should have been constructed of concrete.

“Had it not been for the failure of that basin, it probably would have assisted considerably in holding down the damage,” said Battalion Chief James Adamson of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

In the wake of several similar basin failures during rainstorms last February and March, when dozens of houses were flooded, Lancaster, Palmdale and county officials had agreed to pursue a $1.1-million joint program of drainage improvements to protect Quartz Hill.