PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Two people died and another was hurt in separate incidents where trees and limbs fell in the Portland metro area.
A teenager who was part of a group planting trees at Thousand Acres Dog Park was hit and killed by a falling limb, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office said.
Deputies were called to the park along Crown Point Hwy in Troutdale around 11:15 a.m. Saturday. Despite emergency efforts, the teen died at the scene, officials said.
The Outdoor Project website said the Sandy River Delta Park, “better known by locals as Thousand Acres, is the off-leash mecca of Portland with 1,400 acres of open field.”
In the other incident, a “huge tree branch” fell on two people who were camping at Northeast Sandy and 118th, Portland police said. One person died and another was taken to the hospital. Authorities said an arborist was called to the scene to handle the severely deteriorated tree.
‘Our trees have had a lot of stress’
Those who keep the parks and roadways clear of fallen trees and branches issued warnings earlier this fall about the potential for stressed trees to fall. Officials cited wildfires and weather conditions, including ice storms and drought, as a reason for concern.
“Our trees have had a lot of stress this year starting with the ice storm in February of 2021 and then our heat dome this summer which also put a lot of stress on our trees,” said Hannah Schafer with PBOT.
Dash Schenck, a Portland arborist, said you can’t always trust what you see when considering the health of a tree.
“Trees can look extremely healthy, they can have a nice beautiful green canopy, they can be large and dense,” he said. “But for an arborist we know immediately there’s decay and it could be potentially dangerous.”
On Friday a tree that may have looked alright to some crashed down into an empty home, shaking the neighbors on Northwest Maywood.
“I was standing in our office and I heard a loud crash and looked out the window and I could see the power line still shaking and saw the tree on the house,” neighbor Robin Tenkate said that day. “I just moved in and I’m awfully nervous about our house and if something similar would happen to us.”