Tens of thousands still without power Wednesday morning

PORTLAND, Ore. (KGW) – The storm that hammered northwest Oregon Monday and Tuesday is over, but tens of thousands of residents were still without power Wednesday morning as utility crews worked to repair the widespread damage that the heavy wind inflicted on power lines.

Portland General Electric’s outage map showed about 34,900 customers still without power in the Portland and Salem metro areas as of about 10 a.m., and Pacific Power showed about 7,500 customers without power at the same time, mostly near the coast or along the Interstate 5 corridor south of Salem.

In southwest Washington, Clark Public Utilities showed about 1,200 customers without power at about the same time Wednesday morning, with about 5,300 more listed as “recently restored.”

Although substantial, those totals for PGE and Pacific Power are a big improvement from each utility’s peak outage level during the storm Tuesday, when Oregon achieved the dubious distinction of being the worst state in the country for power outages at the time.

PGE’s outage map showed a high point of about 117,000 customers without power shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday, and Pacific Power said in a news release Tuesday evening that it had peaked at nearly 50,000 customers without power earlier in the day.

Both utilities were already improving by Tuesday night; PGE’s total was down to about 81,500 customers at about 8:20 p.m., and Pacific Power was down to about 18,000.

In a news release Tuesday evening, PGE director of utility operations Dale Goodman said the utility had more than 600 personnel out in the field, but the ongoing winds Tuesday afternoon were hampering repair efforts, and that it would take more time to assess damage and restore power.

Pacific Power reported at about 8:30 p.m. that the winds had begun to die down, and said its crews would be working through the night to reconnect customers.

Most of the outages listed on PGE’s map do not appear to show estimated times for reconnection. PGE did not give a specific time estimate for full reconnection when KGW reached out Wednesday morning, saying only that damage to the grid was widespread and the utility is working to restore power for all customers “as quickly as safety allows.”