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The San Diego Union-Tribune

8:10 p.m. September 10, 2004

BORREGO SPRINGS – Sudden, heavy rainfall from a thunderstorm caused flash floods that damaged dozens of homes and roads, wiped out a popular campground and left hundreds without power around this desert community Friday, authorities said.

Some 70 to 90 homes were damaged by a wall of water and mud that was estimated to be 20 to 25 feet high upriver at Anza-Borrego State Park, where a campground at the mouth of Borrego Palm Canyon was obliterated, authorities said.

Authorities set up a command post and the Red Cross opened an evacuation center at Borrego High School.

No injuries were reported, said Capt. Steve Baumgardner of the Borrego Springs Fire Department.

Runoff from mountain rainfall caused the flooding in Borrego Palm Canyon, Borrego Springs and Coyote Canyon shortly before 5 p.m., the National Weather Service said.

"Where I saw it, it was an enormous river, running very strong."said Tom Gorton, staff writer for the Borrego Sun, the town's weekly newspaper (owned by The Copley Press, parent company of The San Diego Union-Tribune). The floodwater "was washing down big trees, logs, brush, a lot of debris from the fires last year".

Gorton said he witnessed 15 to 20 houses flooded up to several feet deep with water in the Sun Gold and De Anza areas of Borrego Springs, on the northeast end of the valley in which the town is situated. One resident reported his home filled with mud 4 feet deep.

An estimated 50 to 60 homes in the De Anza Country Club area were flooded, as well as another 20 to 30 homes in the Sun Gold area of the community, Baumgardner said. Some 200 to 300 homes also remained without power Friday night.

Fred Jee, supervising ranger at Anza-Borrego State Park, said the upper campground at the park was devastated by a wall of water estimated at 20 to 25 feet high. Other camping areas were under a sea of mud.At the time of the flooding no one was in the campgrounds, which can be full of campers during holiday periods and in cooler seasons.