An unusually windy spring storm blew through the Willamette Valley on Friday, downing dozens of rain-soaked trees, turning power off for more than 100,000 residents and leaving a mess behind for homeowners and municipal crews to clean up.
Salem Municipal Airport recorded 60 mphwinds between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m.Friday, said Colby Newman,a National Weather Service meteorologist.
"It's rare for a windstorm to happen this late in the season in April," Newman said.
Newman said an unusually strong low-pressure weather system developed Thursday off the Oregon Coast and picked up wind speed as it moved into the Mid-Willamette Valley.
"There are times we see winds like that above 2,000 feet, but the waythis one was oriented, it moved down and transferred to where we live," Newman said.
Newman said windstorms aren't even common this time of year, so this system was highly unusual for the Mid-Willamette Valley.
The last time Salem recorded wind gusts close to Friday's 60 mph winds was in March 2015,when gusts reached 58 mph.
City of Salempublic works crews responded to more than 30downed trees as of 1 p.m. Friday, according to city public information officer Mike Gotterba.
Oregon State Hospitalmaintenance crews assisted inclearing a 100-foot treefrom the road on 24th Streetand Hayden Avenue NE,just across the street from the hospital.
A red PT Cruiserattempted to cross over a thick branch on 24th Street just before the towering tree toppled over and crashed into the car. The woman operating the carwas not injured.
Kevin Kalband Charles Milesof the hospital's crew workedfor hours to cut the tree into pieces to clear the vehicle hidden beneath thick branches and dense leaves.
Rotting roots coupled with the oversaturated soil following a historically wet winter were factors in the tree's plunge. The windstorm played the final role in uprooting many old trees throughout the region, Newman said.
"We were worried about the tree knocking down the power line there, but it barely touched it," Kalb said, pointing at the power line just inches away from where the tip of the tree rested on the concrete.
Marion County Emergency Managementdeployed extra teams to assist with placing road hazard signs on roads, repairing or replacing downed stop signs and responding to downed trees.
Alan Haley,the Marion County public works and emergency management director,said crews are working to clear streets of hazards Friday and will call in crews as needed over the weekend. Any additional clean up of objects not blocking the road will occur next week.
PGE crews are still working to restore power in the region. Roughly15,859 PGE customers in Marion County are without power as of 2:45 p.m. Friday.
Some PGE restoration efforts will be delayed due to high wind conditions and crews will prioritize efforts in areas where the greatest number of customers are affected.
To report an outage or get an update on an outage, visitPortlandGeneral.com/Outage.Report any downed trees and signals out in Salem to the Public Works department by calling 503-588-6333.
Tree limbs, downed utility lines and traffic signal outageswere reported across the Salem area:
- Portland General Electric says the wind storm caused outages for about 168,000 customers across their service area. All available crews are working to restore power but due to the volume of outages, the company was unable to provide estimates for restoration of service.
- Five DMV offices closed due to windstorm interruptions including Stayton,Grants Pass, Coquille, Cave Junction and La Grande.
- Crews are working to remove a tree that fell across 24th St near the Oregon State Hospital campus.
- The following stores may be impacted by power outages:Safeway, Walmart, Cash N Carry and Trader Joes on Commercial St SE
- Downed trees caused delays on northbound I-5 north of the Chemawa exit.
- A downed utility line closed both directions of I-5 in Albany. The interstate is now open.
-Chemeketa Community College is closed today due to power outages. The college announcedall campuses are closed and all activities canceled.
- Salem-Keizer School District says buses may be late but schools are running on normal schedule. Schools in the district without power are:Highland Elementary School, Hayesville Elementary School, Riverfront Learning Center and East Salem Community Center.
- METCOM 9-1-1 service experiencedan outage. 9-1-1 calls have been rerouted to Willamette Valley Communications Center.
- Traffic signals at Broadway and Pine St, Commercial and BaxterRd SE, Liberty St NE and Salem Parkway, Market and Commercialwere reported out.
- A downed tree closed Chemawa Road NE between Lockhaven Drive NE and Verda Lane NE in Keizer.
- A tree fell into utility wires on Doaks Ferry near Emerald Drive
- Both the Wheatland and Buena Vista ferries are closed due to power outages.
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