Storm Slams Eastern Oregon!

Ice-coated streets and highways made for a treacherous commute and another snow day at schools this morning across Eastern Oregon.

Forecasters predicted more to come, although rain could switch to snow this afternoon.

Police and emergency personnel hustled from one highway call to another, along the way reporting icy roads and traffic moving slowly, if at all.

Schools across Umatilla and Morrow counties and in Walla Walla, Wash., started the morning with 2-hour delays but moved by 6 a.m. to outright closures. 

“We decided to call it for today,” said Tricia Baker, assistant superintendent at Pendleton School District, after conferring with Mid Columbia Bus Co., the school bus contractor.

Pendleton, like most other area schools, gave students a snow day Wednesday, although weather turned out milder than expected. Baker said the district made the right call, nonetheless. 

“I would rather take 100 calls from parents upset about school being closed than one about an accident,” she said.

The National Weather Service forecasted “another messy Pacific storm” moving through the region today and Friday and declared a winter storm warning in effect until 4 a.m. Friday. Warm air aloft moved into the area overnight, replacing snow with rain, which fell into colder air near the surface and froze, creating the ice-rink style conditions that greeted motorists and pedestrians alike, said weather service meteorologist Diana Hayden in Pendleton.

She said cold air may replace that warm air aloft and produce more snow, but only time will tell. Temperatures should remain below freezing at the surface, however, she said.

In Pendleton, three city street crews began applying gravel for traction at 5 a.m, said Bob Patterson, public works director. Patterson said the crews’ first priority is hills, then highly traveled streets and down to lower-traffic routes.

Patterson advises drivers to use common sense, and make sure vehicles are properly equipped with good tires and chains, if necessary. He suggested using sand or kitty litter on sidewalks.

 “Drive slow, folks,” he said.

Tom Strandberg, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Transportation in northeast Oregon, advised driving only if necessary and then only in vehicles withtraction tires or chains. The transportation department required chains or traction tires on Interstate 84 from The Dalles to Cabbage Hill and on portions of Highway 395 and Highway 11 between Pendleton and Milton-Freewater.

“Basically, it’s pretty nasty there in Umatilla and Morrow counties,” he said. “Winter is definitely here now, and we don’t know how long it will be like this.”

 Sgt. John Shafer of the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office said he drove early to work from Athena to tackle an anticipated increase in calls, which didn’t materialize.

“For the most part, people are slowing down — they got their winter driving skills back,” he said.

The sheriff’s office responded to plenty of vehicle slide-offs, Shafer said, and one rollover on Interstate 82. The driver, though, was OK and called in the crash himself.

Schools closures are helping keep drivers off the roads, Shafer said, and others decided to stay home. He said he directed one of his workers to do that rather than chance roadways this morning.

“It’s better to be safe than sorry,” he said.

Snowfall Wednesday and cold temperatures also clogged highways and closed schools.

A slick highway contributed to a 10:50 a.m. crash that closed eastbound lanes of Interstate 84 near Boardman for more than hour, Oregon State Police reported. The collision of a commercial truck and sport utility vehicle sent one driver to the hospital and closed the eastbound lanes for more than an hour.

The crash occurred when an eastbound Volvo semitrailer driven by Edwin Watt Jr., 56, was traveling in the right lane when a 1996 Ford Explorer entered traffic from the on-ramp, according to Oregon State Police Trooper Placido Lopez-Sendejas. Guadalupe Telles Lopez, 41, sped up to get in front of the truck and lost control due to icy conditions on the road. Telles Lopez’s vehicle slid in front of the truck and the vehicles collided, according to police.  Telles Lopez was treated at Good Shepherd Medical Center, Hermiston, for minor injuries and released, according to police. Watt was not injured. While conditions Wednesday in Eastern Oregon challenged drivers and afforded school children a day free of instruction, western Oregon was hammered by rising creeks and winds in excess of 100 mph, according to the Associated Press.

Flooding ravages west side of state

Rising waters swept a car carrying at least three people from a grocery store parking lot into an overflowing creek late Wednesday. A man and child got out of the sinking vehicle in the Willamette Valley city of Albany. At least one other child was missing and feared dead.

The storm brought little snow at lower elevations but the fierce winds knocked down trees, causing power outages.

News outlets reported a wind gust of 113 mph in Charlston, 110 mph at Cape Foulweather and 99 mph at Cape Blanco.

KCST-FM radio in Florence reported 88 mph gusts and power outages in the area. The station also said a tree fell onto a car and injured a woman.

Wind pushed a tractor-trailer into a pickup traveling the opposite direction on the bridge spanning Yaquina Bay in Newport, pinning the small truck against the guardrail and blocking both lanes of U.S. Highway 101, police said. Nobody was injured. Wind gusts in the area were clocked as high as 70 mph.

Officials in Coos and Lincoln counties each said they’ve responded to reports of about 20 downed trees blocking roadways. The numbers were typical for a winter storm, they said, and crews were keeping up.

Crews closed roads throughout the Coast Range when downed trees blocked travel. One lane of Interstate 5 near downtown Portland was shut down because of high water, causing long backups. I-84 was temporarily blocked in both directions east of Biggs after a tractor-trailer crashed into a guardrail.

Most roads had reopened by Wednesday evening.

The Coast Guard closed entrances to Depoe Bay and the Siuslaw and Umpqua rivers.

The National Weather Service issued flood warnings for several rivers, and the state Oregon Department of Geology warned of the potential for flooding, landslides and debris flows — rapidly moving landslides that can destroy anything in their path.

After intense rainfall, officials said, anyone near steep slopes should be on alert for signs of danger like the sound of trees cracking or a sudden change in the flow of a stream.

The Weather Service late Wednesday reported major flooding on the Marys River near Philomath, south of Corvallis.

The Siuslaw River near Mapleton in Lane County also overflowed its banks, causing what the Weather Service described as moderate flooding.

Flood advisories covered much of the Willamette Valley.

The storm began moving in Tuesday night, bringing some snow that changed to rain early Wednesday as temperatures warmed.

Wet snow coated tree branches and power lines early Wednesday, resulting in power outages that at times affected thousands in the greater Portland metro area.

Shutter Creek prison in North Bend ran on generators after a power outage. Prison officials canceled programs and off-site work crews, and inmates were restricted to their housing units and the yard, said Jennifer Black, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Corrections.

Pacific Power officials said 1,700 customers lost power in that area. At the peak statewide, the company had 5,200 customers without electricity. About 1,000 remained in the dark late Wednesday night.

Early Wednesday morning, 30,000 customers of Portland General Electric were without power. Power had been restored to most by late Wednesday night.

Late Tuesday, a specially equipped pediatric ambulance lost traction on the steep road leading to the hospital while transporting a 3-month-old infant. The unit was freed with help from paramedics from a separate ambulance, said officials from American Medical Response Northwest, which operates the rescue ambulance.