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Wind gusts cause outages throughout the Rogue Valley By PETER WONG Monday's storm resulted in some outages scattered throughout the Rogue Valley, but overall damage was slight compared to a thunderstorm three months ago. Roger Gerig, a technician for the National Weather Service in Medford, said Monday's peak gust was recorded at 44 mph, compared with a peak of 54 mph in the Aug. 23 storm. "That wind was quite a bit stronger," he said. "We have seen the end of the wind in the valley for this storm." Nearly 1,000 households in the Griffin Creek area, south of Medford, were without power for more than an hour Monday. Bob Barry, customer business manager for Pacific Power, said power went out at about 2:35 p.m. and was restored about 3:50 p.m. A fallen power pole caused outages to about 300 customers east of Phoenix in the Payne Road area. Barry said power went out at around 2:30 p.m. and was restored about three hours later. Outages also affected customers scattered from Hyatt Lake to the Applegate Valley and up to Prospect. There were scattered reports of fallen trees, including one that fell on South Pacific Highway near the 7-11 convenience store in Phoenix. Police said both southbound lanes were blocked temporarily. But most agencies reported no unusual problems Monday night. Gerig said mountain passes were likely to get a coating of snow overnight as the snow level in the Siskiyous dropped to 3,500 feet. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA