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72 °F Forecast | Road Cams Wednesday, August 4, 2004 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 Prime Times Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People 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 August 3, 2004 Geoff Manbeck of the Phoenix Fire Department feels around for a plugged drain Monday along Main Street in Phoenix, where an afternoon thunderstorm caused minor flooding. The water couldn�t drain because recent paving work covered up the storm drains. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Hail, rain pound valley Brief localized storm brings minor flooding, hampers I-5 traffic By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Southern Oregon got a big dose Monday of how bloated thunderheads can defeat summer’s heat and those people who are banking on August’s normally sunny skies. Waves of intense rains and thundering hail swept across the Rogue Valley Monday afternoon, forcing Interstate 5 traffic to a near-standstill close to Talent and causing pockets of urban flooding in Phoenix and Ashland, authorities said. The U.S. Forest Service reported 2 inches of hail on the ground at Diamond Lake in eastern Douglas County, while almost three-fourths of an inch of rain fell within 15 minutes just north of Ashland. Also, lightning strikes generated a handful of small fires in Jackson County. What started as a few large drops sizzling on the streets turned into violent watery assaults that convinced people like Phoenix mechanic Ken Peck to drop everything and stand in awe at what came out of the sky. "Hail was just coming down, coming down, smashing against the sides of the windows," said Peck, whose sheet-metal awning rattled beneath 10 minutes of hail. Advertisement "Usually, when we get it, it lasts 30 or 45 seconds," Peck said. "This one lasted forever." Peck’s shop fronts Highway 99, where authorities said a combination of rain, hail and bad timing created some of the worst local flooding from Monday’s storms. A large swath of Highway 99 from just south of Medford to Talent was repaved with asphalt last week under an Oregon Department of Transportation project. Highway 99’s storm drains were paved over with plans to come back and reopen them soon, said Jim Bear, Phoenix’s director of public works. "They haven’t gotten to them yet," Bear said. "The rain beat them to it." Oregon State Police troopers closed two portions of southbound Highway 99 while Bear and his crews scurried with metal bars, attempting to break through the thin layer of asphalt covering the drains. "We can’t even find them," Bear said. Between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., Phoenix received 1.2 inches of rain and hail, putting more than a foot of water on the highway’s southbound lanes. "It was pretty crazy going from 100 degrees to this," said Aaron Backus, commanding officer with the Phoenix Fire Department. The craziness began in Northern California, where a low-pressure system pushed north into Oregon, carrying with it a series of enormous thunderclouds. "When you have low pressure, you usually have a lot of instability," said meteorologist Frederick Bunnag with the National Weather Service office in Medford. "The air’s unstable, so you have thunderstorms." And you get lightning. Firefighters recorded 40 lightning bolts touching ground Monday afternoon, mainly along the border from the Colestin area east toward the Cascades. The bolts came while the state Department of Forestry announced it would enact extreme fire-precaution restrictions beginning Wednesday in Jackson and Josephine counties. "Some of the areas where the strikes occurred also got a heck of a lot of rain," said Dennis Turco, an ODF fire-prevention specialist. By Monday evening, fires were reported in areas like Wagner Butte and in the Little Butte Creek basin. Turco said more small, smoldering embers could puff themselves into tiny fires by this morning. "We’ll have to wait and see what pops up," Turco said. "We could have a few sleepers." Similarly, drivers on I-5 escaped without incident when the 15 minutes of intense rain north of Ashland down-shifted motorists to a near crawl from Ashland to Phoenix. "The heavy rain got people to slow down and it was like an accordion effect," OSP senior trooper Bill Floyd said. "But no crashes." But Monday’s hail didn’t ruffle a single Thespian’s hair-do. The Ashland Shakespeare Festival stages no plays on Mondays, including at its outdoor theater. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Storm batters pear orchards on Rogue Valley’s west end Pear orchards, either beginning or nearing harvest, were hit hard by Monday’s rain and hail on the west side of the Bear Creek drainage. "It hit us pretty bad on the west side of the valley," said Luis Balero, orchard superintendent at Associated Fruit in Phoenix, which grows four or five varieties on 400 acres where the hail fell. "By today we will see the bruises on the fruit. "We had a little hail in March, but this time the fruit is pretty good size and it’s real critical." Bear Creek Corp. orchards also were in the storm’s path, but the extent of damage wasn’t immediately available. "One good thing, so to speak, is that we don’t have all of our eggs in one basket," said Bill White, who works orchard blocks in the unscathed north valley. Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times