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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend December 31, 2005 Firefighters with Jackson County Fire District No. 5 pull an unidentified man out of Bear Creek Friday after rescuing him from the middle of the flooded creek about a mile north of South Valley View Road. -- Mail Tribune photo by Denise Baratta DOWN CAME THE RAIN Region tries to dry out after skies open, flooding roadways and neighborhoods By MEG LANDERS Mail Tribune Relentless rain pounding saturated soils Friday closed Interstate 5 over the Siskiyous with mud slides and sent residents from Rogue River to Ashland fleeing from rising floodwaters. The surging waters closed county roads and city streets, taxed storm water systems and toppled trees throughout Southern Oregon. A flash-flood and mud slide closed Interstate 5 near milepost 8, south of Ashland, at about 9 a.m. Friday. Northbound lanes reopened in the afternoon, but southbound lanes were expected to remain closed through the night as crews worked to clean up mud slides. Oregon Department of Transportation officials expected southbound lanes to open by 7 a.m. today. About 600 residents were evacuated from four mobile home parks after Bear Creek spilled its banks and threatened their homes. A homeless man had to be rescued from the waters just north of Valley View Road. Mountain View Estates and RV Roundup in Talent and Bear Lake Mobile Park in Phoenix were evacuated as Bear Creek continued to rise. Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters said the Medford Estates mobile home park near Phoenix also was partially evacuated after more than 100 homes were damaged. Advertisement Winters said the Rogue River escaped its banks in the city of Rogue River near the Depot Street Bridge and covered a portion of state Highway 99."Water flooded several locations on Highway 99 between Gold Hill and Rogue River at the Depot Street Bridge," Winters said. Rogue River police also evacuated residents in the area of Creekview Lane and Pine Street as Evans Creek crested its banks. Near Shady Cove, Rogue River Drive was shut down when the river torrents spread water across the pavement and nearby farmlands. The American Red Cross opened an emergency shelter at the Jackson County Expo in Central Point for stranded travelers and residents flooded out of their homes. The shelter remained almost empty late Friday, said emergency services director Tony Hernandez. "We’ve only got a handful of people, perhaps half a dozen," Hernandez said. "Most of them are stranded motorists coming from Interstate 5." Jackson County declared a state of emergency, opened its emergency operations center and instituted a citizen hotline number, 776-7338. The National Weather Service issued a flood warning for small streams and urban areas in Jackson and Josephine counties through today. A snow advisory was issued for elevations above 5,000 feet through this afternoon, with accumulations of 6 to 9 inches expected overnight and another 6 to 8 inches this morning and afternoon. Blizzard conditions closed the Mount Ashland ski area Friday morning. The National Weather Service predicted Friday that showers would taper off a bit today, but another storm is expected to bring more rain on Sunday along with winds of 20 mph. Ryan Sandler, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Medford, said 1.96 inches of rain fell in Medford between midnight and 4 p.m. Friday. He expected that number to top 2 inches by midnight. The storm hit almost eight years to the day after a storm that started Dec. 31, 1997 flooded more than 1,000 homes and businesses in Southern Oregon. That storm heavily damaged downtown Ashland and several of the same mobile home parks hit by Friday’s deluge. During the 1997 flood, only 1.53 inches fell on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1, but the New Year’s Day storm dumped 3 inches over three days, Sandler said. Only 17 days in Medford over the past 77 years have had more than 2 inches of rain, Sandler said. Friday’s storm drenched Quail Prairie in Curry County with 7.16 inches from 3 p.m. Thursday to 3 p.m. Friday. Buckhorn Springs on Highway 66 had 3.5 inches in 24 hours, and Evans Valley had 4 inches, Sandler said. In Ashland, city officials issued a request that residents limit their water use because of high flows into the water treatment plant. The water is safe to drink, officials said. Ashland also requested that people avoid entering Lithia Park because of the high flows in Ashland Creek. Officials also warned residents to stay away from Lithia, Bluebird and North Mountain parks on Sunday because expected winds may down trees whose roots have been loosened by saturated soils. Storm runoff caused the regional wastewater treatment plant, which serves Medford, Jacksonville, Phoenix, Talent, Eagle Point, White City and Central Point, to reach its peak flow of 103 million gallons per day on Friday. "Seventeen million gallons of that is sewage, the rest is rainwater," said Cory Crebbin, Medford public works director. He said they’re looking into alternatives, such as shunting peak flows to some Rogue Valley Sewer Services lagoons. He said if the plant surpassed capacity and wastewater had to be released into the Rogue River without being fully treated, it would be diluted and would not cause an environmental hazard. "It’s almost not even sewage anymore," he said. "It’s not really an environmental catastrophe or anything." Grants Pass’ wastewater treatment plant began bypassing raw sewage into the Rogue River Friday at 8 gallons per second. Though the sewage was greatly diluted, residents were advised to wash thoroughly with soap and water and launder clothing if exposed to storm water flows or floodwaters from the river. Suzanne Gotfried of Provolt outside Grants Pass said Williams Creek had swollen to a raging river 100 yards wide. "There are full-size trees coming down the creek," she told the Grants Pass Daily Courier. "They’ve already taken out the pilings holding up our deck." Reach reporter Meg Landers at 776-4481 or e-mail DOWN CAME THE RAIN ">[email protected] . Reporter Chris Conrad and The Associated Press also contributed to this story. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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