LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. (AP) – A winter storm covered the Pacific Northwest with ice and snow on Saturday, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power and disrupting travel across the region.
Freezing rain left roads, power lines, and trees covered with ice in the Portland, Oregon region, and on Saturday morning more than 270,000 people were without power. The extreme conditions, power outages, and transportation issues were for Oregon Gov. Kate Brown reason to declare a state of emergency on Saturday afternoon.
“Crews are now in full force, coordinating with local emergency response teams on communications for emergency services, such as warming centers,” Brown said in a statement. “I am committed to making state resources available to ensure crews have the resources they need on the ground.”
Winter storms and extreme cold endangered much of the western US, especially homeless communities. Volunteers and staffers tried to keep homeless residents in Casper, Wyoming, indoors, as the National Weather Service warned that wind chill temperatures rose as high as 35 degrees below zero on weekends. Authorities in western Washington and western Oregon have opened heated shelters in an effort to protect homeless residents from the wet and cold.
The power outages in the Portland area could last all weekend for some, said Elizabeth Lattanner, a spokeswoman for PGE, one of the region’s major electricity providers.
“In storms like these, recovery takes time, given all the challenges our crew face in reaching and recovering from those outages,” Lattanner said. “We have more than 600 PGE and contract personnel responding to the storm – it’s all hands on deck.”
Many ice-laden trees broke under weight, fell on power lines, and caused transformers to blow out in showers of blue and orange sparks. On Saturday afternoon, more than 1,200 PGE power lines had failed, Lattanner said.
Brian Zevenbergen watched Saturday as a crew cut two large, ice-covered trees that crashed across his driveway at night, narrowly missing two parked cars. His home in Lake Owego had also lost power overnight. Just around the corner, another huge tree blocked the suburban street south of Portland and had taken a streetlamp out of town.
“Everything was up last night, and this morning the two trees had blocked me in the driveway and blocked at least half the street,” he said. “Friends on the lower levels have power, so I have invitations to hang out there.”
The ice and lost strength didn’t stop children from looking forward to a second day in a row tobogganing in a place where snow rarely falls. Residents blocked streets with cones and knocked out snowplows so children could sled through ice-covered hills.
The ice and snow caused treacherous driving conditions, forcing Oregon transportation officials to shut down Interstate 84 in the Columbia River Gorge, and the regional transportation agency TriMet suspended all bus and train services in the region.
TriMet spokesperson Tia York asked people to avoid all travel unless it is an emergency. “It’s too dangerous out there,” York wrote in a statement.
Police in Salem, Oregon, also warned residents of Marion and Polk counties to keep an eye out for downed power lines and falling tree branches, and Oregon state police said fallen trees blocked several roads in the region.
Some Washington state residents were also hemmed in by the weather, with snow falling throughout the Seattle region on Saturday morning and icy rain along the coast in Grays Harbor County. The City of Seattle activated its Emergency Operations Center Saturday morning to coordinate the city’s response to the winter storm.
Heavy snow also created dangerous driving conditions in parts of eastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho, with Malheur County, Oregon, and Boise, Idaho, expected to get as much as six inches of snow by Saturday afternoon.
The National Weather Service said all three states must brace for another wave of winter moisture to reach the northwest on Sunday evening, potentially leading to more heavy snowfall through Monday. The “uncertain winter conditions” were likely to last all week, the National Weather Service said Saturday morning.
Western Washington was expected to get an additional 8 to 15 inches of snow on Saturday, and another 2 inches on Sunday and Monday. Rain falling on accumulated snow increased the likelihood of flooding in the city on Sunday night or Monday in some areas, according to the National Weather Service.
The heavy snowfall created dangerous avalanche conditions in many areas of the Olympic Games and the Cascades mountain ranges, with potentially large avalanches. Officials at the Payette Avalanche Center in west-central Idaho also warned of an increasing avalanche danger in the coming days.
Idaho’s neighbors to the east were bombarded by brutal freezing weather, with the National Weather Service warning of dangerous chills in Montana and Wyoming. Wind chills were expected to hit as low as 50 degrees below zero in Billings and near Missoula, Montana, and nearly as low in parts of Wyoming.
Chills that low can cause frostbite on exposed skin in minutes. The bitter cold was expected to last all weekend.
The National Weather Service warned that wind chill could be dangerous for pets and young stock at a time when calving season is beginning for many ranchers.
The Colorado Avalanche Information Center also warned of dangerous avalanche conditions in zones around Apsen, Steamboat and Flat Tops, Grand Mesa and Gunnison. According to the National Weather Service, frigid temperatures with lows below zero were expected to last through Monday morning in Denver and across the plains of Colorado.
Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.