Outages caused by a big storm spanned the Willamette Valley recently. PGE reported large outages in Troutdale, Oregon City, and Troutdale areas. Pacific Power restored power to around 100 residents this past Friday morning and restored service to residents near Corvallis and toward the Warrenton area. In Washington, Clark Public Utilities dealt with nearly 350 outages.
Power crews spent most of a that Friday working to restore service to thousands of people left in the dark due to this storm. Across Portland, residents encountered fallen trees and foliage still on them such as large branches and trunks snapped and toppled. An SUV along the East Historic Columbia River Highway was totalled by a falled tree.
The storm’s heavy rain and winds created power outages. Residents are now digging themselves out from the debris. It also interrupted some public functions. One tree in a median along Powell in Gresham blocked the westbound lanes just west of NW Miller and Main City Park. In addition, TriMet #9 bus line was disrupted for more than an hour, having to take detours. It’s one of the reasons one man, John Dupuis, pulled over to step in.
PGE’s meteorologists and emergency management teams were busy monitoring the weather conditions in the area and the region. Their crews are out working to restore power because of it’s impact on traffic lights and the flow of traffic.
One resident who experienced it all told the local media, “I grew up in the Midwest and we didn’t really have a lot of emergency resources, that sort of thing,” said Dupuis. With a trunk full of limbs from a tree he helped clear earlier, he was just getting his chainsaw ready to go when Gresham crews arrived. Switching gears to help clear the limbs and debris, he paid no thought to the blowing rain and weather conditions — only wanting to help. “It’s community. We’ve got to take care of each other,” said Dupuis. “Getting this done and taken care of hopefully makes someone else’s day a little easier.”
