PORTLAND, Ore. — Roughly 119,000 customers in the Portland metro area are still without power as of early Sunday afternoon as the region continues to deal with frigid temperatures the day after a winter storm that brought, high winds, snow, sleet and freezing rain.
At around 1 p.m. Sunday, PGE's outage map showed there were still 3,264 outages impacting nearly 115,351 customers across the northwest part of the state.
Pacific Power reported 1,931 customers without power throughout the metro area and Clark Public Utilities reported 1,556 customers without power, also as of around 1 p.m.
Pacific Power's map shows about 14,425 customers without power across all of western Oregon, with the biggest concentrations of outages in the Portland metro area, the Eugene metro area and the Lincoln City area on the coast.
On Saturday afternoon, in a news release, PGE said many of the outages are due to trees or branches falling onto power lines. PGE said nearly 400 workers are out assessing damage and restoring service, and that even more would be expected on Sunday.
"PGE is working to restore power as quickly and safely as conditions allow," the company said in the release. "Crew responses may be impacted by snow, high winds, road conditions or fallen trees."
Pacific Power said on Saturday that it had more than 800 personnel responding to outages, but repair times were lengthened by hazardous conditions caused by snow and ice accumulation.
Gas utility provider NW Natural also posted a message late Saturday asking customers to conserve gas when possible, due to increased usage across the region caused by the cold temperatures.
What to do if you're without power
If your power is out, contact PGE if you haven't already. You can report a power outage or get an update through:
- Text updates: Log into your PGE account and make sure PGE has your contact information so they can provide updates via text message)
- Online: Visit portlandgeneral.com/outage to see PGE's outage map
- PGE app: Download the PGE app (Google Play Store | Apple App Store). Links are available at portlandgeneral.com/app.
PGE also provides the following advice for people currently without power:
- Contact 211 for warming shelter information or other assistance.
- See if you can stay with a friend or family member who has power.
- Be careful lighting candles as an alternative light source.
- Don't operate kerosene heaters or generators indoors. Without proper ventilation, they can generate harmful gases and deadly carbon monoxide.
- Lock in the heat in your home by tacking blankets over windows and doorways to keep the cold out. Put rolled towels at the bottom of doors to keep drafts out.
- Stay at least 35 feet away from fallen power lines and anything they are touching. Always assume a power line is live and energized.
Correction: A previous version of this article referred to people without power instead of customers without power. One customer could be multiple people in a household, so the number of people without power is much higher than the customer outage count.
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