Tijuana Plans to Move 2,000 From Flooded Canyons : Relief efforts: Orange County businesses, service groups and churches are rounding up needed items, which will be trucked to the border.

As heavy rains again fell on the area, Tijuana city officials said Tuesday they plan to relocate at least 2,000 residents from the canyons hit hardest by last week’s lethal flash floods to a new temporary city that will ultimately be the site of permanent housing.

The relocation will be part of the city’s effort to improve drainage in the 30 canyons that feed into the Tijuana River. The effort commenced Tuesday with large-scale earthmoving in two of the hardest-hit canyons, Laureles and Piedrera, by 50 huge Caterpillars and other heavy equipment.

Although Tijuana Planning Director Diego Moreno said there is as yet no funding or legal mandate for the move, which could cost up to $50 million, there is a precedent. In 1978, the federal government relocated about 10,000 residents virtually overnight from the low-lying Rio zone of the city after floods covered much of the area.

“It took something dramatic for the city to act in 1978. Something like that has happened here and dramatic action is called for,” said Moreno, 48, who was named Dec. 1 as Tijuana’s municipal planning director by Mayor Hector Osuna, a close friend. Moreno’s previous career was primarily as a resort architect and construction project manager.

As relocation plans began in Tijuana, flood-relief efforts were being mounted throughout Southern California. In Orange County, general organizational help was coming from county Rotary Club members while donations of food were being coordinated by Lucky Stores Inc. in Buena Park.

“At this point, one truckload has already gone down to Tijuana and another with 36 donated hospital beds is leaving Friday,” Herbert Trumpoldt, a Southern California Rotary official, said.

Trumpoldt said he urged 2,800 members in Orange and eastern Los Angeles counties to help after receiving a plea from Rotary leaders in Tijuana.

Juan Alonso, a spokesman for Lucky Stores, said that bins will be put outside the company’s 222 stores asking the public for non-perishable canned goods, diapers and other relief items.

Alonso, who inspected the flood damage over the weekend, said that company trucks are expected to deliver tons of donated items Monday.

On Sunday, two Catholic churches will collect blankets and diapers, items specifically requested by officials in Tijuana. The items will be gathered at St. Boniface Church in Anaheim and at St. Anne’s Church in Santa Ana.

Msgr. Jaime Soto said the drive is a cooperative effort with Orange County Spanish-language radio station KPLS, the American Red Cross’ Orange County chapter and Santa Ana-based Goodwill Industries of Orange County.

O’Neil Moving Systems in Santa Ana is loaning a 45-foot trailer to pick up and transport donations to Tijuana today. The truck will stop at 8 a.m. at St. Anne’s church, 1344 S. Main St., and at 10 a.m. at Goodwill Industries, 410 N. Fairview St., both in Santa Ana.

Last week’s torrential rain and flash floods that coursed through the city’s canyons killed 14 and left 5,500 people homeless. New rains that began Tuesday afternoon and which are expected to continue through this weekend are expected to inflict additional damage. The city is blaming overpopulation and the junk clogging the canyons for the flooding.

On Tuesday, giant earthmoving vehicles began clearing tons of mud and several junked cars from Piedrera Canyon about two miles south of the city center. The junked cars had served as a kind of dam over which water burst down on houses below.

Officials say there have always been and will be floods in Tijuana because it lies on a river delta. Serious floods struck the city in 1978, 1980, 1983 and 1988.

“Since 1978, a new cycle of flooding began,” Moreno said. “We believe this is going to be happening every three to five years instead of every 10 years as in the past,” Moreno said.

Heavy rain Tuesday afternoon caused no additional deaths but did result in further damage to houses in the Piedrera Canyon area, said a spokeswoman in the Tijuana mayor’s office.

Tijuana’s municipal government is negotiating with the Baja California state government for a piece of land near Tijuana where it can relocate residents of Piedrera and Laureles canyons. The plan was confirmed by Ruffo’s office Tuesday.

The settlement might be a “tent city” at first but will be replaced with permanent structures that the displaced residents could own.

The clearing-out of Tijuana’s canyons will begin with the four-mile stretch of Piedrera and Laureles but eventually will include four other canyons, Moreno said. Relocation of residents will start within two months, Moreno said. Those made homeless by the flooding are staying in 68 temporary shelters.

NEW STORM: A Pacific jet stream storm rolls in, dropping more rain on an already soaked Southland. B5