Oregon wind storm causes Willamette Valley outages, road closures
(This story was updated to include new information)
Thousands of homes and businesses throughout the Willamette Valley lost power Monday afternoon after wind and thunder and lightning hit the region.
A wind advisory issued by the National Weather Service is in place through 4 a.m. Tuesday.
The NWS issued a tornado warning from 5:26 p.m. until 6 p.m. Monday evening for Marion and Clackamas counties. The warning covered Silverton, Scotts Mills and Mt. Angel in Marion County.
The NWS also issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Marion and Clackamas counties that started just before 5 p.m. and lasted until 5:43 p.m.
Portland General Electric, Pacific Power and Salem Electric customers reported outages throughout the valley. None of the companies had immediate estimates of when power would return.
More than 200 Portland General Electric customers who live along River Road S in Salem lost power at about 4:22 p.m.
Other outages reported including about 60 customers near Turner, about 12 customers in Brooks, more than 100 in Unionvale and about 100 around Willamina.
Pacific Power reported 206 customers near Mill City lost power, 306 near Independence and 23 in Dallas.
Salem Electric reported multiple outages throughout West Salem at 4:50 p.m. Monday afternoon, but it said that as of 5:05 p.m. power had been restored in the Eola Drive area, but it was still working to restore power to several smaller areas.
To report outages or check on the status of an outage, go to portlandgeneral.com/outages, pacificpower.net/outages-safety.html or salemelectric.com/alerts/west-salem-outage/.
ODOT said a downed tree west of Dallas will delay traffic on Highway 233 for an undetermined length of time.
Bill Poehler covers Marion and Polk County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at [email protected]
