PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — April snow has left tens of thousands in Oregon and Southwest Washington without power early Monday morning. And, crews have been hard at work getting it restored as fast as possible.
The blast rare winter weather this far into spring has also closed busy roads and forced school closures and delays throughout the region.
Notifications on the three different power providers’ websites say that it could still be several hours before service is totally restored.
As of 9 p.m. Monday, here’s where the outages stand:
- PGE: 1054 outages, 15,323 customers
- Pacific Power: 61 outages, 500 customers
- Clark PUD: 2283 customers
Earlier Monday morning, trees fell into a power line in Southwest Portland, knocking it down and starting a fire in some nearby brush.
With power out to thousands and roads blocked, school delays turned into cancellations. Even though PGE and Pacific Power had extra crews ready for the predicted snow, there were dozens and dozens of locations where power lines came down.
At one location, sparks from live wires started a brush fire near Lewis and Clark Law School on Terwilliger Boulevard.
Crews from the various power companies will continue to work until all the power is restored — but it could be hours.