Quarantines Resume After Heavy Rains

A husband and wife were killed Tuesday in Tijuana as the victims of a storm-induced mudslide, and relief workers continued to assist 32 residents of Chula Vista left temporarily homeless in the wake of Monday’s record rains.

Contaminated runoff from the week’s deluge sent toxic bacterial counts soaring Tuesday, as San Diego County health authorities quarantined 19 1/2 miles of coast and measured readings in excess of the legal limit for the first time in Mission Beach.

Readings in Mission Bay also leaped above safe-water standards, and the overflow of raw sewage from Tijuana mixed with flood waters to push counts dramatically higher in the South Bay, county health authorities said Tuesday.

Steady rain from Sunday night through Tuesday morning delayed repairs to the massive sewage outfall pipe that continues to send 180 million gallons a day of partly treated waste gushing into the ocean three-quarters of a mile from Point Loma.

But Ruth Covill, a spokeswoman for the San Diego County Department of Health Services, said high bacterial counts in Mission Bay and Mission Beach were not thought to be related to the Point Loma sewage spill, which was first detected Feb. 2, but to heavy storm runoff in the city’s sewer pipes.

Monday’s rainfall total of 1.95 inches was the highest total for March 2 ever recorded at Lindbergh Field, the National Weather Service said Tuesday. It wiped out the previous high for the day of 1.56 inches, set in 1938.

In Mexico, Monday’s floodwaters left 25 people stranded on the small fishing island of San Benito, 40 miles off the coast of Baja California. They were rescued and were being sheltered by authorities on the nearby island of Cedros, according to civil defense officials.

Authorities at the state’s civil defense agency also said 27 residents in El Rosario, a fishing village about 150 miles south of Ensenada, were safe after being evacuated from neighborhoods that were cut off by floodwaters.

Some northbound American tourists in recreational vehicles were briefly trapped on a coastal highway in the area when floodwaters washed away a bridge, according to radio operator Jesus Aguilar in Mexicali. But they were not injured and were able to resume their drive Tuesday night with the help of workers who repaired the bridge, he said.

Earlier reports of vehicles being washed off the roads in the area appeared to be unfounded, according to civil defense officials in Ensenada and Mexicali. They said rescue workers in helicopters and boats continued patrolling the area Tuesday night checking for anyone who may have been trapped or endangered by the storms.

The rain was blamed for a tragedy that killed a young couple and orphaned their four children in the working-class Colonia Libertad neighborhood of Tijuana.

Jose Mora, 32, and his 29-year-old wife, Consuelo, died when a concrete wall on a hillside collapsed onto their small wood house shortly after midnight Monday, Tijuana firefighters said. A mudslide apparently caused the collapse.

“They were dead by the time the firefighters arrived,” said radio operator Oscar Mancha. “The house was crushed.”

The couple’s four children escaped injury and are being taken care of by grandparents, Mancha said. Mudslides are a recurring problem during rainstorms in the canyons of the border-area neighborhood, where humble makeshift houses are built precariously on hillsides.

In Tijuana, a woman suffered a leg injury when a wooden facade on display at City Hall was dislodged by wind and hail. Linda de Victorino, 35, who was struck by the structure, suffered leg injuries and was reported in stable condition Tuesday at a Red Cross hospital.

Meanwhile, officials of the American Red Cross said residents of Chula Vista suffered far more damage from the week’s rains than anyone else in the county. Thirty-two people required emergency relief Monday and Tuesday after their homes were inundated with water, a spokeswoman said.

Three families, a total of 15 people, received food, lodging and new shoes after finding their living-room floors in the 1200 block of 3rd Avenue under 18 inches of water, Red Cross official Nancy Jordan said Tuesday.

Jordan said a family of 11 received two nights’ lodging, a week’s worth of groceries and new shoes after their homes in the 1000 block of Woodlawn Street were flooded Monday afternoon.

Two families, a total of six people, received new shoes, new beds and other new furniture from the Red Cross after their apartments were flooded in the 1200 block of 5th Avenue in Chula Vista, said Jordan.

The three days of rain that ended Tuesday brought 2.09 inches to San Diego and pushed the city above its annual average of rainfall, said Wally Cegiel of the National Weather Service. The annual average is 9.32 inches, and so far, 10.31 inches have fallen in 1992.

Cegiel said further clearing is expected today, with another, weaker storm arriving Thursday and lasting through early Friday. He said the storm, coming from the Gulf of Alaska down through Northern California, should also bring cooler temperatures.

The storm that blew down trees and power lines and caused numerous outages, as well as 200 weather-related traffic accidents, was blamed Tuesday for reimposing a quarantine on beaches from the international border to the San Diego River in Ocean Beach.

Covill, the county health official, said the overflow of raw sewage from Tijuana mixing with contaminated runoff closed coastline from the border to North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado--a distance of 12 miles.

She said the area from the tip of Point Loma to the San Diego River--about 7 1/2 miles--remained closed Tuesday, as it has been since early February. City officials said bacterial counts were 15 times the legal limit at U.S. Navy property, just north of the Point Loma sewage spill.

Areas of Mission Beach were also closed Tuesday afternoon, after high counts forced the immediate posting of the all-too-familiar signs: “Danger: Contaminated Water. Keep Out.”

Covill said county health authorities took the unprecedented step late Monday of issuing a county-wide advisory against using any area beach or bay for at least 72 hours after the end of Tuesday’s rain.

“Bacteria from leaves, road oil and other organic matter breaking down and flowing through the sewer system causes the readings to go way up,” Covill said.

She said the problem in Imperial Beach is once again “particularly acute,” with Tuesday’s flow having reached 111 million gallons of raw sewage from the Tijuana River. The binational pump station, which is able to handle only 13 million gallons a day, was shut down Monday.

Officials for the California Highway Patrol said flooding continued to be a problem Tuesday on southbound and northbound Interstate 5 near Palm Avenue in Chula Vista, where traffic was reduced to one lane each way Monday afternoon.

“The rain lengthened commutes all over the county from an hour to an hour and a half all day Monday,” said CHP spokeswoman Jackie Sturges. “But fortunately, we had no fatalities and only a couple of major-injury accidents. Otherwise, everybody fared fairly well.”

Some of the worst flooding in the county occurred on California 163 near downtown, “and that’s an area normally immune from flooding,” said Chris Bach, a planning officer with the office of emergency management for the city of San Diego.

“It happened right through Balboa Park and, at times, slowed traffic to a crawl,” Bach said.