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Power knocked out in Oregon, Washington as winter weather moves in

A PGE crew member works on a power line, undated (Courtesy: PGE)

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The arrival of winter weather in the region has left many without power on Wednesday.

Clark Public Utilities, which services Clark County and surrounding areas, is reporting outages stretching from Woodland to the Hockinson area. As of 3 p.m., 255 people were in the dark. Earlier in the morning, around 10 a.m., nearly 1,800 customers had lost power due to multiple downed trees.

“As snow accumulates in parts of the county there are scattered outages caused by falling limbs as well as equipment damage and broken poles from car accidents,” Clark PUD tweeted.

Meanwhile, utility crews in Oregon are staying busy responding to outages across the Willamette Valley.

Portland General Electric said there are several clusters of outages in the Portland area, especially in higher elevations. As of 3 p.m. PGE reported 11 outages affecting 68 customers. PGE crews are also working to restore electricity to almost two dozen households in Oregon City. However, as of 7:30 p.m., PGE says the outages are effecting over 3,000 customers.

The majority of the nearly 100 Pacific Power customers without power are located in southern Oregon. Earlier in the morning, the utility company was dealing with a much larger outage — impacting almost 900 customers — in Douglas County.

The possibility for snow continues to increase throughout the day as moisture sticks around and a blast of arctic air arrives.

Stay with KOIN 6 for continuing coverage.