Thousands in Oregon still lack power after storm

PORTLAND — More than 24,000 customers were still without power in northwest Oregon — 10 days after a series of powerful ice storms.

The majority of the outages were in Clackamas County, where more than 8,700 people were still in the dark Monday, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Marion County accounted for another 7,800 outages with the rest scattered among Multnomah, Polk, Washington and Yamhill counties.

Portland General Electric officials said last week they hoped to have power restored to all but 15,000 customers by Friday night. But officials with the utility on Monday said that as crews have surveyed the damage, the estimates for restoration have lengthened.

Nearly half of PGE’s customers, more than 420,000, were impacted by outages during these storms, PGE President Maria Pope said Monday. Crews are in the last phases of slow work that only restores power to about 10 customers at a time, she said.

“Ongoing wind as well as ice and tree damage continue to impact our system’s wires and poles, making restoration very challenging,” Pope said in a news conference. “We continue to make progress to get your power back on, but not as quickly as we all would like.”

She said she couldn’t give an exact date of when all customers would again have power.

PGE said that up to a quarter of the customers who lost power have had multiple outages, meaning crews had to return to some areas to complete work more than once. In some areas, downed trees have impeded crews’ access to downed lines and substations.

Over the weekend, National Guard crews began conducting wellness checks and delivering supplies, according to county officials.