PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The truly unusual April snowstorm that hit Portland Monday morning also caused a lot of tree limbs to snap and power lines to fall. At one point 100,000 customers were without power for time in the region.
In the Southwest Hills of Portland, there are a lot of snapped trees and just about as many stories from people in the neighborhood.
Rebecca and Shayne told KOIN 6 News they “lost a little bit of a tree.” They lost their power around 8:30 a.m., which left them without brewed coffee.
“I told him he should make his coffee before we lose the power,” she said. “Didn’t happen, because not 10 minutes later the power just goes out completely.”
They’ve been using their vehicles to charge phones and other batteries. Rebecca admitted, “The battery anxiety is kind of real.”
Another woman nearby said a large tree fell, covered their entire front yard and nearly landed in her living room.
“We were standing in the window looking at snow this morning when it came down and it missed us by feet,” she said.
Wet and heavy snowfall brought down tree after tree. Dave Simpson said there were a “lot of trees, a lot of wires and everything’s above ground.”
Those falling trees snapped the power lines and kept crews from PGE busy — and neighbors trying to figure out how to stay warm.
Power outages as of 9 p.m. Monday:
PGE: 1054 outages, 15,323 customers
Pacific Power: 61 outages, 500 customers
Clark PUD: 2283 customers
Up the street Bob Spitzer had no idea the neighborhood lost power.
“We woke up to power and then had all these messages about power being out,” Spitzer said. “So we opened our back door and heard our generator.”
But John Russell said he believes he’s hit on the secret to keeping his power on in times like this.
“Right before the power went out, I go, ‘Damn!’ By the time I finished ‘damn’ it was back on again,” Russell told KOIN 6 News. “So then 20 minutes later it went off again and then I said, ‘Damn!’ again. And it came back on again. So there’s the secret.”