Wind storm brings down trees, knocks out power in Lake Oswego

The unexpected Friday morning storm sends first responders and maintenence crews scrambling to keep up

Lake Oswego was hit with a major wind storm Friday morning that seemingly came out of nowhere, knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses, darkening traffic lights and bringing down branches, limbs and massive trees throughout the city.

The city's LOCOM dispatch center was swamped with calls throughout the morning, and both the Lake Oswego Police Department and Lake Oswego Fire Department stayed busy rushing to multiple reports of downed trees and power lines. Fortunately, officials say, the wind picked up in the middle of a shift change at the fire department, allowing firefighters to respond with close to double their usual staff levels.

"Today's event was made more manageable because we had additional resources available," said LOFD Assistant Chief David Morris. "By having the additional pieces of emergency response equipment available, there was very little wait for anything that needed a quick response. Many of the more minor calls were picked up and handled by crews between the emergency calls."

Still, first responders were so busy that in many cases they could only tape off affected areas and streets and move on to the next call, and all but the busiest thoroughfares were covered with debris and small branches throughout the day.

"Like with any storm, we do triage work first," said Jim Bateman, streets superintendent for the City's Operations and Maintenance Department. "We try to get the roads clear, and then we go back and clean up the mess."

The most surprising thing about the storm, Bateman said, was that it was so widespread and affected so much of Lake Oswego. Even the Mt. Park neighborhood, where most of the utilities are underground, lost power for most of the day.

So did the Evergreen, First Addition, Lake Grove and Westlake neighborhoods, among many others. Oswego Pointe was dark for most of the day, as were the shops, restaurants and businesses downtown. City Hall and the library lost power, and traffic lights were out even on major thoroughfares like State Street, Country Club Road and Kruse Way from Boones Ferry Road all the way to I-5.

"At one point, nearly every signaled intersection in Lake Oswego had a loss of power to the traffic signals," Morris told The Review.

Police and firefighters reminded motorists to treat any intersection where the traffic signals had gone dark as four-way stops. Traffic backed up throughout the city, but for the most part drivers seemed to be following the LOPD's advice.

In the neighborhoods, the problem wasn't traffic but exploding transformers, arcing power lines and massive trees that toppled onto homes, fences and cars. A 75-foot fir fell across Kristi Way near River Grove Elementary School, coming to rest on an electrical vault. On Hill Way, Nicole Ferebee was the only one home when a 100-foot tree came down across three homes; no one was hurt, she said, when limbs smashed through her front window.

Megan Briggs said no one was hurt at her home on Eighth Street, either, when a massive fir lifted out the ground in her front yard and fell across the road, smashing a neighbor's fence. Briggs said she heard a snapping noise and rushed her children out of the house when she saw the root ball lift out of the ground and the tree start to fall. Fortunately, she said, it fell away from her house and even missed the mailbox sitting nearby.

Two blocks away on Eighth Street, a Prius was not so lucky when a tree landed on its trunk. It was one of two cars reportedly damaged in the storm.

Near the swim park on Lakeview Boulevard, two massive trees fell from private property and knocked down utility poles. By late afternoon, Bateman said Lakeview was the only major artery still closed in the city, although part of Childs Road near Montauk Circle also was blocked.

Schools across the city lost power, too. Hallinan, Oak Creek and Lake Grove elementary schools went dark, as did Lake Oswego Junior High and Lake Oswego High. Forest Hills Elementary lost power, too, but it came back on almost right away.

At Hallinan, Principal Alix Pickett told The Review that "we're making the best of it" during a dark morning. Children were enjoying extra recess while classrooms were dark, she said.

Classes throughout the Lake Oswego School District were not canceled, however, because students and staff had already arrived on campus by the time the lights went out. District officials did expect delays in afternoon bus routes, though, and LOSD Communications Director Nancy Duin said outdoor sports or activities for the afternoon and evening would be canceled. Indoor activities were likely to be canceled too, she said, if the power didn't come back on in time.

Despite the annoyance, Duin said students and staff managed to improvise throughout the day. Some lunches were premade when they arrived, some were cold lunches like sandwiches. LOSD administrators and staff armed with flashlights dispersed to local classrooms to make sure students could find their way in any shadowy areas.

School phones and internet service went down, but parents contacted the schools using administrators' cellphones. Although there was no light, teachers and staff seemed to know what to do.

"We're sticking to rooms with daylight," Duin said.

She added that room temperatures dropped a little, but only into the 60s. Kids would be fine or wear a coat if need be.

"Thank goodness it's not January," she said. "It's a little cooler, but it's OK."

At the height of the storm, PGE reported nearly 14,000 homes and businesses without power in Lake Oswego. More than 218,000 customers went dark across the metro area — so many, in fact, that PGE posted a message to its website early in the day alerting customers that it was unable to provide restoration estimates due to the strong winds in the region. The company said some outages could last into the weekend, and it encouraged customers to call 503-464-7777 or go to PortlandGeneral.com/Outage for updates.

The National Weather Service said wind gusts ranged from 91 mph at Mary's Peak in the central Coast Range to nearly 60 mph in the Portland metro area at the height of the storm. Forecasters said powerful winds were expected to stick around through late morning before gradually tapering off in the afternoon. And indeed, the sun was shining and winds were mostly calm by 4 p.m.

That wasn't the case earlier, though, when Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue activated its Fire Operations Center, where a management team coordinated the response of fire units to emergency events throughout the agency's service area, from downed trees and power lines to brush fires, vehicle crashes and other incidents.

"Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue reminds individuals that with the current demand on public safety agencies, emergency responders must prioritize their response to incidents," the agency said in a press release. "At this time, emergency responders are responding to incidents with confirmed multiple patients and situations with a known life safety threat. All other situations will be responded to, as resources become available. People are encouraged to avoid travel if possible since several roads are closed due to downed trees."

A heavy tree limb fell on a 67-year-old Tigard man out for a walk in Garden Home. Ronald Edward Kibert was found unconscious beneath the limb after 8 a.m. and was hospitalized at OHSU, but he died later in the day.

To the south of the Portland area, a plane crashed just outside Harrisburg at about 11:02 a.m., killing all four of its occupants, said Linn County Sheriff Bruce Riley. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, but windy conditions have disrupted flights in western Oregon all morning.

To the east, a boat with four fishermen in it capsized in the Columbia River near Multnomah Falls on Friday morning. All four were rescued as the U.S. Coast Guard and Multnomah County Sheriff's Office responded, and one was taken by helicopter to an area hospital.

Closer to home, LOPD Chief Don Johnson said the city's emergency responders were able to keep up with an extraordinary call volume, but he described the entire morning as "super hectic." LOCOM brought in two extra dispatchers and one extra call taker, he said, plus two more people serving as runners for the dispatch staff.

"It all starts here," he said, "because everybody's got the most critical issue. They've taken a ton of calls."

Johnson told The Review that the department deployed 15 police officers throughout the city, joining 16 firefighters and another 15 staffers from the public works department.

"That's 46 people just handling the calls for Lake Oswego," he said, adding that just like under normal circumstances, the dispatch center also took incoming emergency calls from West Linn and Milwaukie.

"(The call volume) is starting to taper off," he told The Review just before noon, "but this (storm) is going to stick with us for a few more hours, I'm sure."

The length of the storm also created logistical challenges just to keep emergency crews going. With so many downed trees and power lines throughout the city and new emergencies every hour, Johnson said none of the staff in the field had time to come in and take a break for lunch, so the staff at the dispatch center had to coordinate a plan to get food out to them.

Still, he said, the officers, firefighters and maintenance staff were in their element and would stay active in the field for as long as necessary.

"They thrive on this," he said.

While there were several reports of property damage, Johnson and Morris both told The Review that there were no reported injuries in the city.

"A few trees fell onto houses," Morris said. "A few did substantial damage, while others just did light damage. Fortunately, no one was injured in the damaged homes."

Still, Morris encouraged residents to stay safe by remaining vigilant.

"There are several things we like to remind people about during any storm event," he said. "Many storms bring down power lines, and you can't tell if a power line still has electricity to it. So treat any downed power line as if it was charged and know that touching it could result in death. Additionally, if you are in a vehicle with a power line on it, stay put and do not open the door. The best course of action is to wait for emergency responders to give you direction on how to stay safe."

The National Weather Service also offered some advice in an early morning tweet: "Best advice we can give: Don't park under a tree today."

Reporters Jillian Daley and Gary M. Stein contributed to this report. Contact Lake Oswego Review reporter Anthony Macuk at 503-636-1281 ext. 105 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .