GRANTS PASS, Ore. – Winter storms are causing thousands to lose power, in Southern Oregon and Northern California.
Pacific Power says as of around 5:30 pm on December 27th, there were about 20,500 customers without power.
At the height of the storm, almost 50,000 lost power.
The utility says crews are working to restore power to the affected areas but winds up to 80 miles per hour are causing problems.
It says the storm is causing so many problems because of already weakened trees from last weekend’s storm.
“Coming on the heels of the ice storm, you had a lot of vegetation that was maybe damaged by the ice, not so much that it would fall on a line but damaged. then here comes a big windstorm, here comes a lot of rain,” said Tom Gauntt, Spokesperson for Pacific Power.
He says the Coos Bay and Grants Pass areas were some of the hardest hit in Southern Oregon.
Pacific Power said as of 8:30 pm, 1,500 customers are without power in Coos Bay and 8,000 are still without power in Grants Pass.
Southern Oregon wasn’t the only area hit hard by the storm. Portland General Electric reports more than 109,000 customers were without electricity, by late this afternoon.
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