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PORTLAND, Ore. — Residents in the Portland-metro area woke up Sunday morning to temperatures in the mid-teens after a Saturday storm blanketed the region with snow and ice.
Highs for Sunday were only expected to get into the mid-20s.
Vicious winds toppled trees and pushed down power lines Saturday, leaving more than 150,000 people in the dark.
As of around 5 a.m. Sunday, there were still more than 128,000 PGE and more than 15,000 Pacific Power customers without power.
Winds on Saturday gusted to 46 mph in Portland. In Corbett, gusts reached 74 mph.
High winds knocked down dozens and dozens of trees, many of them crashing into homes. A tree that came down onto a home in Lake Oswego killed a man.
The Multnomah County medical examiner reported one person likely died of hypothermia.
A person died and another was injured when a tree came down on a RV in the 5300 block of Southeast 105th Street. The RV caught fire. Four people were living in it.
The cities of Portland and Lake Oswego both declared emergencies.
TriMet also suspended all MAX service until further notice.
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Most of the precipitation was over by Saturday, leaving the region with snow and ice on the ground that was not expected to melt for several days as temperatures were not forecast to rise above freezing until Wednesday.
“We’re not going to have to deal with anymore precipitation for the rest of the day or even for the next couple of days. The next time we see any precipitation is going to be Tuesday, with this high-pressure system in our area, it’s going to keep us nice and dry for the next few days, ” said KATU Meteorologist Allison Gutleber.
About 1.5 inches of snow fell at the National Weather Service’s Northeast Portland office. Other places got quite a bit more. Out in the Columbia River Gorge, Hood River got six inches, in Lake Oswego, 2.5 inches of snow fell, and in La Center, Washington, five inches.
With snow and ice still on the ground, navigating area roads will still be dicey Sunday.
Dylan Rivera, a spokesperson for the Portland Bureau of Transportation, said that it had more than 30 roads closed Sunday morning.
“It got really bad yesterday, as you saw, and continued overnight. Downed trees are still the main issue, and as we get daylight this morning, we’ll be looking to clear as many roads as we can,” he said.
As for plowing and clearing the roads of snow, Rivera said crews will be focusing on the primary and secondary routes, including bridges and overpasses, using salt and de-icer.
“We’re focused on the routes that TriMet buses and police and fire and first responders need — also, those emergency shelter locations, we’re plowing those as well,” he said.
As things develop Sunday, this story will be updated.
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