A storm that swept across the Pacific Northwest produced a lot of snow, ice buildup and freezing rain over the weekend and left hundreds of thousands of people in Oregon and Washington without power on Monday.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown declared a state of emergency on Saturday in nine counties due to the severe winter weather that resulted in heavy snow and ice accumulation, strong winds, critical transport failures and loss of energy and communication skills.
“Severe wind and ice conditions have caused extensive damage to the electrical system, with utilities reporting thousands of power lines down, as well as damage to transmission lines and substations,” Brown said in a statement released on Sunday.
As such, more than 320,000 power outages were reported in Oregon with Portland General Electric reporting most power outages, affecting 280,000 customers on Monday at noon and Pacific Power reporting the second highest number of outages with 40,000 affected customers . “A series of historic storms hit our communities, bringing three waves of snow, ice and wind,” said Portland General Electric, addressing the winter weather event. “As each storm arrives, more ice accumulates on the trees and power lines, which causes more and more trees and power lines to fall … as we repair one area, another area is impacted and more repairs need to happen . ”
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announced an emergency due to bad weather, closing government offices at noon on Monday and Multnomah County officials maintained shelters open at the Oregon Convention Center in downtown Portland and Metro Garage for residents who need a safe, warm place to stay through the storm.
The National Meteorological Service has announced ice storm warnings on both Portland and Seattle over the weekend and the transportation departments of each city issued travel recommendations alerting residents to stay indoors if possible. The widespread rain in Seattle on Monday morning brought with it some pockets of snow and freezing rain in the valleys near Cascades, the National Weather Service tweeted on Monday.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said parts of Emerald City received nearly a foot of snow on Saturday as the city broke a snow day record in decades, with 20 inches of snow falling at Seattle Sea-Tac Airport (where official snowfall records are kept) ) on Saturday, February 13, according to affiliate CNN KOMO.