Rain began pooling inside around sunrise, according to Bob McElroy, Alpha Project\u2019s CEO. The water rose to at least 2 feet near the bunk beds, he said. Outside, it reached chest high. People had to leave so quickly that clothes, bedding and other belongings were left behind, and many items are now likely ruined.<\/p>\n
![\"During](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sut-l-tentflooding-003.jpg\")
During the flood on Thursday morning at the Bridge Shelter on Newton Avenue, residents were evacuated to the San Diego Municipal Gymnasium in Balboa Park. As of Friday the shelter remains closed.\u00a0(Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
\u201cNot a great start to the new year,\u201d McElroy said.<\/p>\n
More rain is expected in the coming days, and McElroy added that residents were especially in need of socks, underwear and warmer clothes.<\/p>\n
The tent has long been considered a stopgap, since that property is slated to one day become a housing project. Regardless, the loss of the facility, even if it\u2019s temporary, is a blow to San Diego\u2019s strained shelter system, which has nowhere near enough beds for everybody asking<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some of the damage remained visible Friday. Near the shelter\u2019s entrance, seven portable toilets could be seen lying on their sides. Pizza boxes spilled out of an overturned trash bin. A half-dozen empty wheelchairs, their armrests smeared with dirt and grass, dried out in the sun. On the ground nearby was a single purple toothbrush.<\/p>\n No one appears to have been seriously injured.<\/p>\n A few miles away, a small crowd of exhausted-looking people sat outside the Balboa Park gym. A side door stood open, revealing row after row of cots. Some had sheets. Others did not.<\/p>\n A woman in a gray sweatshirt patrolled the area. \u201cIf you need pillows, we will provide them,\u201d she shouted, before ushering people inside to distribute more bedding.<\/p>\n At one point, she told shelter residents who were outside that they were not allowed to talk to a Union-Tribune reporter. Reached by phone shortly afterward, McElroy, the CEO, said there was no such rule and that anyone sleeping in the gym had permission to speak with the media.<\/p>\n