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Power knocked out to thousands as storm sweeps through region

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Power crews have spent most of a wet Friday trying to restore service to thousands of people left in the dark earlier in the day, thanks to a strong fall storm.

The heavy rain and winds were a perfect recipe for power outages and downed trees across the Portland metro area as locals now work to clean up. It felt like one thing after another as homes and cars saw toppled trees, downed power lines and outages, all while many were trying to stay dry in the constant rainfall, but it didn’t stop some from helping their fellow neighbors. 

Just after 11:45 p.m. 13,817 PGE customers were in the dark.

“We were the only place that did not go out,” said local Micah Mitchell, who spoke with KOIN 6 as he was walking home from work. “Every other store by the Chipotle did go out but we were able to maintain open all day today.”

Across the Portland area, many also encountered fallen trees. With the continued rain and so much foliage still on them, large branches and trunks snapped and toppled. One crushed an SUV along the East Historic Columbia River Highway by the Tippy Canoe restaurant. Others were completely uprooted.

One tree in a median along Powell in Gresham blocked the westbound lanes just west of NW Miller and Main City Park. The 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.

“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.”

PGE told KOIN 6 that generally, with this type of rain and so much foliage still on trees, outages tend to be like this, related to heavy branches and limbs hitting their lines.

PGE’s meteorologists and emergency management teams are monitoring the weather conditions in the area and the region, their crews are out working to restore power as quickly as safety allows because it’s impacting traffic lights and flow as well.

The largest outage remains in Southwest Portland near Flavel Park.

Pacific Power quickly restored power to less than 100 residents early Friday morning and was working to restore service to residents near Corvallis and toward the Warrenton area. In Washington, Clark Public Utilities spent the day dealing with nearly 350 outages.

Outages span the Willamette Valley, with PGE reporting large outages in the Troutdale, Oregon City, and Troutdale areas.