GRESHAM, Ore. -- The National Guard is helping the city of Gresham deal with the pileup of snow and difficulties associated with it, after the mayor declared an emergency Monday.

Mayor Shane Bemis said firetrucks and other emergency responders were having major problems reaching their destinations when responding to 9-1-1 calls Monday. He said the city was requesting additional snow plows or 4-wheel drive vehicles to help.

So the National Guard sent three humvees eqiupped as military ambulances and three humvees for police, along with 12 soldiers to help.

Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Bemis said it was already making a difference.

"They have been able to save us critical time when time was of the utmost importance with ambulances," Bemis said. "And we also had a robbery situation that the humvee was able to get our officers to where they needed to be in a timely manner."

In addition, the county sent a plow to help dig out the city. Bemis said Gresham has seven plows of its own as well and crews have been working practically 24-hours straight, to get the streets cleared.

The mayor also said that he'd like to encourage residents to stay home so additional problems don't develop. Also, he reminded people that they should only call 9-1-1 for emergencies. He said an additional line was set up for people needing life-saving prescriptions. They should call 503-618-2342 if they need help getting their medicine.

Snow piled up on cars in Vernonia.

Gresham wasn't the only community declaring an emergency. Earlier, Vernonia began acting under a declaration of emergency, setting up shelters and organizing citizen disaster preparedness volunteers.

Vernonia Police Chief Michael Kay said that Vernonia and outlying areas were experiencing intermitten power outages within the city and rural parts of Columbia County had a steady loss of power.