14 Dead, 50 Missing as Deluge Floods Tijuana : Weather: Downpour isolates many areas. Officials say hundreds of city’s shanties have been washed away.

In the worst flooding in 13 years, torrential rains washed over this border city Thursday, killing at least 14 people and leaving about 50 unaccounted for as floodwaters transformed downtown streets into raging rivers and mudslides crashed down on shanties.

Three of the dead were children, including an 18-month-old boy whose body was found in a flooded street in the colonia Espaldas del Mundo , Tijuana police spokeswoman Annette Arrellano said.

Most of the dead, including another child, had drowned. But at least three unidentified men were electrocuted when rising floodwaters swept into their homes, a spokesman for the Tijuana medical examiner’s office said.

Officials in the Mexican state of Baja California said Tijuana was “semiparalyzed” by the downpour, with many neighborhoods cut off from emergency services and isolated by the flooding.

Tijuana police issued a plea to residents to stay indoors. A police spokeswoman said emergency vehicles were hampered by cars slowly making their way through soggy streets, clogging whatever roadways remained passable.

Emergency crews struggled to get around Tijuana on Thursday, wading through streets covered by up to five feet of water to rescue and evacuate almost 500 people.

Some of those rescued were plucked off the roofs of their houses before sunrise. Norma Serrano, a resident of the Zona Norte district near the U.S.-Mexico border, said her family of five fled water levels that rose almost to their necks before climbing atop their house at 4:30 a.m.

“It was a terrible experience. We almost had to swim out and were afraid that my two younger sisters would drown,” Serrano said. “We lost everything inside the house.”

Almost all of those escorted to safety lived close to downtown or in the Otay area farther east. Frustrated firefighters and paramedics said thick mud blocked unpaved roads, making it impossible for them to enter the impoverished colonias of squatters who live in shacks of tar paper and cardboard nestled on the city’s hillsides, canyons and mesas.

“God only knows how many are injured or dead in those areas. Our vehicles can’t get in,” said one firefighter working out of a downtown station. “We need a helicopter to get into those areas.”

On Thursday, officials were not close to assessing the damage caused by the storm or totaling the number of deaths and injuries.

Various city agencies could only guess that hundreds of shacks were washed away by the rain and hundreds of homes suffered flood damage.

Evacuees were transported to shelters around the city, including a school, gymnasium and fire stations. At noon, harried firefighters were scurrying around collecting food for the stranded residents, including many children, some of whom had not eaten in 18 hours. Several dozen quarts of milk and orange juice were brought in, but donations of food were being sought.

Some emergency crews had worked nonstop since midnight and were showing the strain. The Baja state capital of Mexicali, which escaped flooding, sent 50 firefighters and equipment to assist Tijuana rescue workers. The city of Ensenada also sent a team of paramedics.

State Judicial Police officials said high waters forced closure of the toll road to Rosarito and Ensenada. Other highways leading to Tecate and Ensenada remained open, but Federal Highway Patrol officials urged drivers to proceed with caution because of heavy fog and poor road conditions.

Rodriguez International Airport was closed periodically during the day because of heavy fog and rain. Airport crews were also struggling to remove water from runways while diverting arriving flights to Los Angeles International Airport and Hermosillo, Sonora, airport spokesman Jesus Rosales said.

The flooding also spread to the U.S. side of the border, reducing the Mexican customs checkpoint at the San Ysidro port of entry to a three-lane bottleneck. A highway leading to downtown Tijuana was under as much as six feet of water in some areas, with the roofs of some stalled cars barely visible.

City road crews struggled to unclog sewer grates, hoping that some muddy water would drain off the streets. But rain, sometimes falling in torrents, continued unrelentingly.

Stalled cars were abandoned at every turn. Avenida Revolucion, the downtown thoroughfare lined with discos, restaurants and shops--and on most days crowded with shoppers--was largely deserted. Police and city officials warned U.S. tourists to stay away from Tijuana through the weekend because of flooded roads.

The city Fire Department headquarters, in Zona Norte just south of the international border at San Ysidro, was virtually cut off from the city. On Thursday, a fast-moving river about two feet deep flowed in front of it, obscuring the street.

Although the death toll in Tijuana was the highest since a 1980 storm took the lives of at least 10 people, Baja state officials breathed a sigh of relief because the border cities of Tecate and Mexicali were spared the devastation. Nonetheless, Mexican army troops were providing sandbags to residents still under threat of flooding from a storm that was forecast for today.

On the U.S. side of the border, the low-lying Tijuana River Valley just west of San Ysidro was under several feet of water. The U.S. Coast Guard and Border Patrol teamed up with San Diego firefighters and emergency crews to rescue several residents and animals. Among those helped to safety were two men clinging to bushes in the rushing river.

Coast Guard officials sent another helicopter to pick up a mother and two young children who were trapped in their motor home by water that was slowly rising. The Coast Guard rescued 10 people throughout the day.

Coast Guard Lt. Gene Adgate said the Tijuana River had overflowed its banks up to 10 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, trapping dozens of horses and cattle at small farms and ranches. County animal control officers rushed to the flooded area to rescue the animals, aided by Border Patrol agents and a horse trailer.

* RELATED STORIES: B1