Escondidans Blame City for Flooding : Weather: Residents whose homes were damaged say storm drains weren’t properly maintained. City denies that. More rain may be on the way.

Residents of an Escondido neighborhood hit by a freak thunderstorm said Wednesday that the city is to blame for damage caused by flooding because it failed to keep drainage areas cleared, but city officials denied that.

“I think it is the city’s fault that this happened, because debris has not been cleaned from the storm drains,” said John Murphy, whose house was ankle deep in water after Tuesday’s storm.

Another resident, Catherine DeLue, who was busily cleaning mud and water from her garage, said, “We have lived here for three years and have never seen the city come out and clean the drains.”

No one was hurt in the violent storm that dumped about 3 inches of rain in less than an hour on a low-lying six-block area near Bear Valley Parkway, officials said.

However, the quickly moving waters engulfed streets, nearly submerged parked cars and forced residents to wade from their homes through waist-high water to drier ground.

While the Escondido residents are working to make their homes habitable again, more rain may be on the way.

National Weather Service spokesman Wally Ceigel said Wednesday that there’s a 50% chance of rain today, but that skies will probably clear by Friday afternoon. The storm has dropped 0.55 of an inch in San Diego since it arrived Sunday night, he said.

The rain total so far this season is 12.54 inches, surpassing San Diego’s normal rainfall of 9.32 inches per year, he said. The rainfall season runs from July 1 to June 30.

About 38 families in Escondido had their homes flooded to varying degrees, and four families from the most heavily damaged homes were housed at a nearby hotel courtesy of the Red Cross, spokeswoman Nancy Jordan said.

The nine most seriously damaged houses are in a 27-year-old tract near Midway and Kingston drives, officials said.

Residents whose homes were flooded say an even bigger storm may be brewing between them and City Hall.

They say the city is responsible for damage because storm drains were clogged with leaves, seldom cleaned and unprepared to handle the sudden volume of water.

But city officials say that Mother Nature is the only one to blame.

“I don’t think it was the city’s fault that this happened,” said Mark Strom of the Public Works Department. “It was trash day there, and some trash cans were overturned by the storm, and that debris clogged the gutters.”

“When we cleared out the gutters of the trash, we could see nothing was obstructing the drains,” he said. “It was just a freak storm. We have had quite a bit of rain this year and no problems until this storm.”

The city checks the drains every time it rains, and once a year there is a thorough inspection of all drains, Strom said.

Workers spent most of Tuesday night and Wednesday sandbagging the area, clearing gutters of mud and retrieving stray trash cans carried away by flood waters, he said.

The rain also helped propel a mud slide that had been slowly attacking a Spring Valley resident’s home.

The mud that broke through the back wall of Lenora Pullin’s home two weeks ago has oozed into the dining room toward the front of the house. The slide started when rains soaked a hillside behind the house, Pullin said.

So far, the mud slide has torn the foundation from the house and swallowed the back yard, chimney and family room, she said.

Pullin, her father and two daughters have taken refuge in a Spring Valley apartment supplied by the Red Cross. She said she does not know if insurance will cover the damage.

“I don’t know what I am going to do about the house, but I am not losing hope,” Pullin said.

Meanwhile, Wednesday’s rainfall may be responsible for at least 87 mostly minor accidents, one of which forced a portion of Interstate 8 to be closed for about 30 minutes during rush hour, CHP spokeswoman Jackie Sturges said. A ramp leading from eastbound I-8 to northbound California 163 was closed about 6:30 a.m. when a vehicle crashed on the rain-slicked road, Sturges said.

About that time in Poway, lightning struck a power box at Poway and Espola roads and knocked out a traffic signal, city officials said. Temporary stoplights were set up at the intersection, and the damaged signal was scheduled to be fixed late Wednesday.