Storm turns Portland into virtual ghost town
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Roads, stores and even some churches were empty the last Sunday before Christmas as a rare winter storm brought the Portland metropolitan area to a halt.
Freezing rain left a coating of ice on the 4-to-8 inches of snow that hit the region Saturday. More snow and icy rain fell Sunday afternoon and evening, adding to the fender-benders, power outages and downed tree limbs that had been accumulating all weekend.
Public safety officials asked people to stay home, but their words were not needed. The list of closures stretched from churches and libraries to the Oregon Zoo and the Oregon Humane Society.
Despite being the last shopping weekend before Christmas, the Pioneer Place mall early Sunday afternoon had the amount of customers one might expect at closing time on a weeknight in March.
The streets of downtown Portland were mostly empty, with pedestrians only occasionally forced to the unshoveled sidewalks to make room for a slow-moving car. By nightfall, the bridges that cross the Willamette River were free of vehicles for minutes at a time.
Transportation agencies closed Interstate 84 in both directions between Troutdale and Hood River until at least Monday morning. The freeway reopened between La Grande and Baker City Sunday afternoon, but chains were required.
Vehicles were banned on a portion of U.S. 26 and many secondary highways, including most of those leading to the coast. Chains were required on vehicles traveling throughout the Portland area.
"It is amazing," Dave Thompson, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Transportation said of the storm. "You say to yourself: 'That's Portland?' The roads are snowpacked, covered with ice and it's freezing rain."
Portland International Airport remained open, but individual air carriers had canceled 380 flights by 6 p.m. Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air and Southwest suspended service in Portland due to the deteriorating conditions.
"We regret the impact these cancellations are having on our customers' holiday travel plans," said Ben Minicucci, Alaska Airlines' chief operating officer. "These decisions are guided by our commitment to safety, and we are making every effort to re-accommodate passengers whose flight schedules have been disrupted."
Though the runways were open, Kama Simonds, a spokeswoman for the Port of Portland, said the airport had only seven arrivals and 13 departures as of late Sunday afternoon. A typical Sunday sees about 465 flights in and out of the airport.
Greyhound bus service out of Portland was canceled, with no decisions on further service expected until Monday morning. Amtrak service from Portland to Seattle was halted Sunday because of heavy snow and a three rail-car derailment. Amtrak officials say they plan to operate in the Pacific Northwest on Monday, but with "significant" delays.
PGE reported scattered power outages from the Salem area to the Portland suburbs to the Columbia River Gorge. Crews had lowered the number of customers without power to 26,000, but that bounced back to 44,000 as conditions worsened Sunday.
