Portland Ice Storm Knocks Out Power 122,000 Homes, Businesses In Dark; Interstate 84 Closed

An icy storm swept across northern Oregon on Thursday, knocking out electricity to much of downtown Portland, the city’s airport and thousands of homes.

Interstate 84 in east Portland was closed about 3 p.m. when power lines collapsed across the freeway. The highway had been closed for eight hours earlier in the day farther east by a mud and snow slide in the Columbia River gorge.

An estimated 122,000 homes and businesses were without power in the Portland area.

The outage worsened during the day as trees laden with ice toppled in rain-softened ground, knocking down power lines as they fell. Other outages occurred when ice-coated tree limbs snapped and fell onto lines, sometimes knocking down a series of power poles.

“We’ve got a unique situation here where we’ve got ice on the trees and no frozen ground,” said Vickie Rocker, spokeswoman for Portland General Electric Co. “The ground is soft and mushy, so the weight is just pulling over some of those trees. We’ve got trees coming down; we’ve got snapping limbs; we’ve got the whole thing.”

More freezing rain was forecast for Thursday night, especially in suburban east Portland near the mouth of the Columbia gorge. Snow was forecast for tonight, with heaviest accumulations in the hills surrounding Portland.

“We could be in for a siege of four to five days before we can restore all power,” Rocker said, “particularly if we get hit with more ice.”

In north Portland, Peter Riesterer, 18, was trapped for nearly an hour when a 25-foot tree limb crashed down on him while he was standing on a woodshed cutting limbs away from a power line leading to his house.

“I was cutting away and I just heard a big snap. I looked up and a big tree and the power line just fell down on me,” he said. “The limb hit me in the head, and when I hit the woodshed, the shed cracked in half and I got trapped in there.

“I thought I was going to die because I could feel the power line on my leg and I’m lying on this metal roof and I’m soaking wet,” he said.

Rescuers carefully cut the big limb that trapped Riesterer. After X-rays at an area hospital, he was found to have suffered only a bump on the head and was sent home.

Meanwhile, a Portland man was in critical condition at Legacy Emanuel Hospital after a piling collapsed and knocked him into the Columbia River.

Lance Alleyn, 31, was in the water for five to 10 minutes and was unconscious when he was rescued by fire crews, Portland Fire Bureau spokesman Rob Ware said.

More than a dozen flights were canceled and many others delayed when Portland International Airport was without power. Emergency generators kept the airport tower, runway lights and security equipment operating.

But jetways were inoperable, preventing direct access from planes to concourses. Luggage Carousels also were shut down.

The terminal, crowded with holiday travelers, was darkened and airport businesses were forced to shut down.

The blackout came on one of the airport’s busiest days. Spokesman Darrel Buttice said 45,000 passengers - 50 percent more than the daily average - were expected to go through the airport Thursday. The situation was aggravated when several flights were diverted to Portland from Seattle because of snow there.

Annoyed shoppers lined up outside the Pioneer Place mall in downtown Portland after the doors were locked because of a power outage.

“Today is not the day - the day after Christmas. It’s one of our busiest days,” said J. Wiggins, a sales associate with J. Crew clothing retailer.

The Oregonian didn’t publish its afternoon street sales edition because power went out in its newsroom and pressroom just as the presses were about to roll.

Electricity was restored downtown by mid-afternoon, and several stores reopened.

Christmas light shows at The Grotto sanctuary, Portland International Raceway and the Washington Park Zoo were canceled.

The light rail transit line between downtown Portland and Gresham was shut down for the night because of ice on the electric lines that power the system.

A slide blocked the eastbound lanes of I-84 about 5:30 a.m. near Bonneville Dam, 35 miles east of Portland. Highway crews reopened the freeway about 1:20 p.m., but driving conditions were treacherous along the 70-mile stretch between Portland and The Dalles because of snow and ice.