More than 60,000 lose power in windstorm

Much of Clark County went dark Thursday afternoon as strong winds whipped through the region, causing widespread power outages and damage.

At one point in the evening, Clark Public Utilities reported 62,699 customers without power in the county — more than one-third of its total customer base.

Several reported outages occurred when wind blew trees into power lines, according to the utility. A high wind warning was in effect until 8:50 p.m. Thursday for much of the Portland metro area, including Clark County. The National Weather Service in Portland reported a top gust of 60 mph at Pearson Field in Vancouver. Other peak gusts included 58 mph in Orchards; 53 mph near Ridgefield and Battle Ground; 52 mph at Cascade Park, and 42 mph near Woodland.

Residents described the scene created by the outages as eerie. When Troy Glidden drove by Northeast 99th Street, he didn’t see any lights on east of Interstate 5.

“Downtown Camas is total darkness,” said Cari Corbett. “Washougal seems to be slightly protected from high winds.”

“Big boom and flash and no power now at 99th and Highway 99,” said Virginia Goranson. She saw a Burgerville employee outside trying to hold up the drive-thru sign.

Jill Hawtrey was on a flight to Portland International Airport that got rerouted to Sea-Tac Airport due to the high winds. Some flights landed using a north-south landing pattern that put jets over the roofs of east Vancouver homes.

The peak gust recorded at PDX was 67 mph — the highest gust reported at the airport since Nov. 14, 1981.

High school basketball games scheduled for Thursday at Evergreen and La Center were canceled due to power outages, along with a high school wrestling match at Hudson’s Bay High.

The Clark College men’s and women’s basketball games were canceled when the west Vancouver campus lost power. Kaiser Permanente and Washington State University Vancouver in Salmon Creek were also in the dark. In Battle Ground, where there was a major outage, the school district canceled all after-school activities.

• Outages

Clark Public Utilities has the latest information on outages available at

www.clarkpublicutilities.com/index.cfm/safety-outages/power-outages/outage-map

• School closures

Information about possible school closures or schedule changes as a result of the storm is at www.columbian.com/schoolclosures/

Intersections had flashing red lights or were totally dark, causing traffic backups around the county, including on state highways 500 and 503. Trees and limbs also obstructed some roadways.

At one point in the afternoon, debris blocked the southbound lanes of I-5 near the Gee Creek rest area west of Battle Ground.

Public works crews were cleaning up the mess while Clark Public Utilities crews worked to restore power. However, as they resolved issues, the number of outages continued growing and outpaced the effort for several hours.

“We watch forecasts really closely. We were prepared for a pretty significant storm event, knowing the wind was coming,” said utility spokeswoman Erica Erland, who added that the utility hired additional contractors. “Our crews are all hands on deck.”

Having significant outages in rural areas, such as Yacolt, Amboy and Venersborg was difficult, she said, because there was thick vegetation along the feeder lines that needed to be repaired.

The National Weather Service said the wind started to die down Thursday evening and would continue to calm overnight.

‘No warning’

Sharon Thiesmeyer and her husband, Ken, were at home, debating whether to go bowling when a 150-foot fir tree crashed through their living room. They had been in the room just a minute prior before walking into the kitchen with their dog.

“It came crashing through. There was no warning. There was no crack. There was no sound other than the tree falling and the roof crashing in,” Sharon Thiesmeyer said.

Upon closer inspection, the Thiesmeyers found that the tree had uprooted from the backyard and toppled over, smashing through the living room and a bedroom, and stretching across the front yard into the street. The tree took out their Christmas light display, too, that the couple had set to music.

“I didn’t know what to do first,” said Sharon Thiesmeyer.

Neighbors ran over to make sure they were OK and helped put tarps over the exposed parts of the house. Thiesmeyers called their insurance company and debated what to do next.

The neighborhood, Sharon Thiesmeyer said, has a lot of fir trees, and she was surprised the sturdy tree was actually uprooted by the wind. When the couple bought the ranch-style home 11 years ago, they completely remodeled it. It looks like we’ll have to remodel it again, Sharon Thiesmeyer said. For what it’s worth, their decorated Christmas tree was unscathed.

Around the region

The winds were driven by a low pressure system that developed over the Pacific Ocean, according to the National Weather Service in Portland. The Portland-metro area, Oregon Coast and Central Oregon all experienced high winds. Pacific City, Ore., recorded a gust of 58 mph, while Eugene, Ore., had gusts up to 54 mph. Newberg, Ore., had one of the highest gusts at 71 mph.

The low pressure system moved from Southwest Washington north toward Tacoma. More than 150,000 customers across Western Washington lost power Thursday evening, with 77,000 customers without power in Oregon.

The National Weather Service clocked a wind gust of 77 mph at Naselle in Southwest Washington and another at 56 mph at Hoquiam on the coast.

In Portland, a large tree fell on a moving car on Southwest Terwilliger Boulevard, causing the vehicle to veer into a second tree, killing a teenage passenger and seriously injuring the car’s adult driver, according to Portland Fire & Rescue. Sheet metal blown off a downtown building shattered windows on the 14th and 15th floor of a neighboring building.

In Kelso, a 61-year-old man was taken to a hospital after a tree broke through the rafters of his house and hit him in his garage. The Daily News of Longview said the man’s condition was not known.

Forecasters say this could be the biggest windstorm since one in 2006 knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of utility customers in Western Washington, some for more than a week

The Associated Press contributed to this article.