Lake Oswego reflects on violent January storm during forum

The city of Lake Oswego is still recovering from a winter storm that battered the area over three months ago.

The January wind and ice storm felled hundreds of trees, precipitated flooding at numerous homes, caused thousands of PGE customers to go without power for days and even led to a death in the community.

To reflect on this event, the city hosted a community forum Tuesday, April 30 at City Hall. Here are some takeaways from the forum.

City seeking FEMA grant

The city plans to submit a $1.9 million Federal Emergency Management Agency application for reimbursement of costs it incurred during storm response. City Engineer Erica Rooney said via interview that this figure mostly represents the amount of money the city spent during the event and that it is waiting to hear back from FEMA about the submission process.

Costs included overtime for employees, paying contractors, repairing damaged infrastructure, purchasing equipment and more. The city paid for these extra costs through contingency funds and it is unclear at this point whether the extra spending will mean the city will have to delay projects or reduce spending; that will become more apparent when department leaders begin discussing the next biennium budget later this year, Rooney said.

Additionally, she said that in the past the city has received around 75% of what it asked for from FEMA following emergencies, but it could collect a higher percentage this time. Rooney expected FEMA to take potentially two years to process and distribute claims from the storm.

The city engineer followed up via email that 70% of the city’s costs from the storm were for street costs while 15% went to repairs of the Westlake Fire Station, which suffered extensive damage. The remaining 15% went to parks needs like repairing damage to restrooms and removal of trees and debris.

Parks crews still working on storm recovery

Parks Director Ivan Anderholm said via interview that the department is still working to clear downed trees in its parks system. Areas that are more accessible to the public have already been addressed, but some open space and stream corridor areas that were considered lower priorities are not yet cleared. Further, Anderholm said the city will begin restoration and replanting of trees at particularly hard-hit spots later this year.

PGE seeks to improve communication

Larry Bekkedahl, a senior vice president for PGE, said that the public utility company has committed to doing better in terms of providing residents with information during inclement weather events that cause long outages.

He said PGE typically turns off its text messaging system during large storm events when it doesn’t have a clear timeline for the weather subsiding and residents’ power being restored. However, he said the company is committed to providing more information in this regard.

“We don’t want to promise too much, but we have to do a better job of telling you more,” he said, adding that PGE doesn’t provide precise information on its website as to which homes don’t have power because they could be targeted by criminals.

Bekkedahl also noted that the company’s phone lines were down for two hours at the onset of the outages because the call volume prompted the system to believe PGE was undergoing a cyberattack. Further, he said frigid conditions in some of the power generation systems out of state made it hard for the agency to adapt to conditions.

The company restored the power of over 500,000 customers during the storm and relied on the help of 1,800 employees, 600 of whom were brought in from outside the region.

Tree removal requests soar

City of Lake Oswego contract arborist Morgan Holen said the local government granted 276 permits for emergency tree removal following the storm compared to 165 in all of 2023. She said unusual and strong winds coming from the east and northeast caused even gargantuan and healthy trees to fall.

Though such an event is not preventable, Holen recommended people plant trees in the right place (particularly in spots where roots can grow deeper into the surface), remove dead or damaged trees, prune regularly and contact an arborist for an assessment.

“Maintaining healthy and strong trees is the best defense,” she said.

Public works overview

Edward Van Buren, the city’s deputy public works director, also provided a general overview of his department’s actions during the storm, noting that the city had to nimbly adapt to ever-changing and increasingly challenging conditions. The city only had about six-to-eight employees in the field each day responding to emergencies across town and prioritized removing trees that blocked major roadways so emergency response personnel could traverse the city; employees worked an average of 127 hours during a 12-day span in January.

The city responded to 300-plus water shutoffs, 125-plus downed trees in the roadway, 12 water main breaks and over 300 welfare checks.The city also received 75-200 calls per day from residents dealing with their own emergencies.