It is starting to feel less like ice moving into the Kwanzaa season. Portlanders and their Northwest neighbors have been waking up to frigid cold weather. This has had effects on travel. Most flight departures from the Portland International Airport remained grounded on Christmas Eve morning, due to delays and cancelations.
Several TriMet public transportation services, including its bus and MAX train routes, continued to experience delays Saturday afternoon due to “weather and staffing issues,” the agency wrote in service alerts. Travelers took to social media, reporting packed flights as people rushed to reach their destinations ahead of Christmas.
Outside are ice-coated cars and streets. But, some saw this view from a home or business that no longer had power on Xmas Eve. Roughly 1,000 homes and businesses were without electricity across Oregon, mostly in the Portland metro area and Central Oregon near Redmond. Ten times as many utility users faced power failures a day earlier.
More than 1,000 people huddled up in shelters to stay warm. Multnomah County and Portland officials closed emergency warming shelters by 8 a.m. Saturday due to the weather starting to warm. Portland’s Pearl district, usually teaming with people, looked more like an arctic ghost town.
Workers on roads crews across Oregon stayed working moving snow around so the drivers can get around. Interstate 84 between Pendleton and Ontario was opened but it remained closed between Troutdale and Hood River with no reopening estimate available from the Oregon Department of Transportation.
