Strong winds stirred up trouble throughout Clark County on Thursday, Sept. 11, downing trees, causing power outages and fanning wildland fires.
By Thursday evening, Clark Public Utilities had 35 outages throughout the day that affected 13,450 customers.
The most extensive outage damaged the Burton substation, causing nearly 4,500 customers to be without power Thursday morning in the Cascade Park and Orchards areas, according to spokeswoman Erica Erland. Several schools were temporarily without power, including Pioneer, Endeavor and Marrion elementary schools, Frontier Middle School and the Clark County Skills Center, according to Evergreen Public Schools. Multiple street lights in the area were also out during the day. Power was restored to most of those customers by 10:15 a.m.
Nearly all of the outages were the result of wind, Erland said. The utility spent much of the day coordinating crews to restore power and talking to customers about the outages. Workers went from site to site and discovered several downed phone lines that weren’t affecting power.
Winds speeds peaked at 28 mph with gusts up to 38 mph in Vancouver, according to the National Weather Service in Portland. Erland said the utility has seen stronger gusts in the past year, but experienced more problems Thursday with downed trees and limbs.
