Utilities in the Portland area responded to significant power outages on Monday following a strong downpour that swept over the area.
By 5 p.m., Portland General Electric reported that over 20,000 customers were impacted by more than 300 outages that occurred in Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties.
PGE’s web outage map shows that over 35,000 customers lost power throughout its service region, which includes Marion and Yamhill counties. As of Monday afternoon, over 3,300 people in the Portland region were without power, according to Pacific Power.
For portions of the Portland region, the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning, citing the potential for toppled trees and wind gusts of up to 60 mph.
Spokesman Rick Graves reported that Portland Fire & Rescue has responded to a few reports of arcing power lines. According to Graves, fire authorities were contacting the utilities to deenergize the impacted lines after storm weather brought down some trees and electricity lines throughout Portland.
Drew Hanson, a PGE spokeswoman, advised locals to report any downed electrical lines by calling 911, staying well away, and then calling the company to do the same.
According to Hanson, PGE meteorologists have been monitoring this storm for a number of days. For this time of year, it’s pretty normal. According to him, the number of impacted consumers would probably increase over the night.
According to Hanson, line workers should be able to react faster than during snow and ice storms that make travel more difficult, but the recent wind and rain might fall trees and make restoration efforts more difficult.
Jonathan Bach can be reached at [email protected].
