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48 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, January 27, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Opportunities Moving to Southern Oregon? MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend December 19, 2004 Total chaos: The rivers run fast, furiously By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune When it comes to floods in the past century, the December 1964 flood inundated the record books. That’s the year the Rogue River crested at 35.15 feet at Grants Pass, where the flood stage is 24.5 feet, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. By comparison, the December 1955 flood reached 32.6 feet in Grants Pass while the 1927 high water rose to 32 feet. The mother of all floods in recorded history, however, occurred in 1861. It sent muddy water roiling to 43 feet at Grants Pass, the Corps recorded. And the 1890 floodwaters rose to 36 feet at Grants Pass, according to the Corps. Advertisement Other notable floods occurred in 1892, 1924, 1945, 1953, 1962, 1974 and 1997. The big floods invariably roar to life when a heavy mountain snowpack is pounded by days of warm, torrential rain. The result is the same: bridges swept away, houses pushed off their foundations, people stranded. That was the case in 1964, when three to four feet of snow fell on the Cascade and Siskiyou mountains, followed by a deluge of warm rain as the freezing level rose to 9,100 feet. Nearly six inches of rain soaked Crater Lake National Park on Dec. 21, 1964. Rain also poured down on Mount Ashland, turning five feet of snow to an icy mush. The rain did not let up in the Rogue Valley, where the Talent Irrigation District recorded an inch in two hours that day. About two inches of warm rain drenched the Applegate. By the next day, the Rogue water level was rising more than a foot an hour. The Rogue Basin rivers began their wild rampage three days before Christmas that year. The flood ripped out bridges along the Rogue, Applegate and Illinois rivers, destroyed homes and stranded countless residents throughout the region. On the upper Rogue, a logjam upstream from Shady Cove burst and tore out the McLeod Bridge. Logs and debris from that bridge roared downstream to wipe out the center span of the bridge at Shady Cove. Dodge and Bybee bridges also were taken out by the raging river. From Ashland to Agness, no community was spared from the floodwaters. Much of Shady Cove was inundated with four to six feet of water. When Little Butte Creek crested, 64 homes and businesses in Eagle Point were flooded. Families living along the Applegate River evacuated as that river rose more than six feet above flood stage, destroying several homes. In the Illinois Valley, homes immediately north of Kerby were engulfed as the swollen Illinois River carried several structures across Highway 199 and tore out bridges. More than 600 people were evacuated in Jackson County and another 300 in Josephine County that Christmas week. Both the Rogue and Illinois valleys were isolated as main roads, including the newly constructed Interstate 5, were temporarily closed by high water or mud slides. Some 900 holiday bus travelers were stranded in Medford. Homes above the water were blacked out as power poles toppled like so many dominoes in the torrent. Before the waters receded, the flood caused an estimated $16 million worth of damage in the two counties, more than $90 million in today’s dollars. Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers