PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Chocolates and flowers are a great combination for Valentine’s Day. But this year, there could be snow in the Portland metro that would complicate the traditional day of love.
On Sunday, the National Weather Service issued a Winter Weather Advisory for the I-5 corridor, with possible snow forecast Monday night into Valentine’s morning.
Despite this, florist Laura Gifford-Kerr of Gifford’s Flowers in Portland said her shop is prepared and the snow won’t stop Cupid in his tracks — but may delay some deliveries.
“What we usually do when we get snowstorms is if we see it coming early enough, we get orders out early or ahead,” Gifford-Kerr told KOIN 6 News. “And then some people will have to get them delayed, but we do our very best to get them out on time or early.”
Now in their 85th year, Gifford’s Flowers has already received hundreds of orders for Valentine’s Day and more are coming in each day.
“Valentine’s Day is definitely the busiest time of year for us, but it’s controlled chaos and we like it,” said Gifford-Kerr. “We also enjoy it because it kind of gets us through the next couple of months.”
She’s also confident Gifford’s Flowers can get the flowers to your special someone — but don’t wait to order. The sooner the better, she said.
At The Meadow in Northwest Portland, Kenzie told KOIN 6 News she doubts the snow will keep customers away from those fast-selling chocolates and black truffle salts.
“We’ve always been pretty busy. When I first started it was during Christmas time and people are still coming in and wanting chocolate, wanting salts, wanting flowers, all sorts of things,” Kenzie said.
She said The Meadow gets flooded with bouquets and chocolates for people who say, “‘Oh, I need this for my girlfriend, or my mom.’ It’s just really sweet.”
Road crews ready
PBOT crews are already prepped for the potentially slick roads in the mountains and along the coast. Hannah Schafer said they’ve called in extra crews to be on stand-by overnight.
“We’ll have our regular night shift in, plus some extra. We’ve got salt trucks all ready to go, already pre-loaded with salt so they can head out as needed,” Schafer told KOIN 6 News.
“Because temperatures on Tuesday are going to be pretty warm — it looks like — we don’t anticipate that snow will stick around for any large amount of time. But it will definitely impact the morning commute if we get the snow that they’re predicting,” Schafer said.