PORTLAND, Oregon — Thousands of Portland General Electric (PGE) customers in Oregon woke up Tuesday morning with their power out.
Around 7 a.m., PGE's outage map showed there were 133 total outages impacting more than 6,600 customers spread around the northwestern part of the state. Those numbers down from about 171 outages that affected over 14,000 customers around 4:30 a.m.
PGE hasn't specified the cause of the outages, but they come amid high wind gusts in the Willamette Valley overnight. The National Weather Service (NWS) Portland issued a wind advisory until 6 p.m. on Tuesday for the Portland metro area, central valley and greater Vancouver area. The NWS and KGW meteorologist Rod Hill both said the winds could be strong enough to cause power outages.
Hill said the highest wind gust he saw overnight was 58 mph in the area of Highway 26 in Sandy.
"Most of the valley wind gusts stayed at 40 mph and under, and it turned out to be just kind of a brief period of south winds around midnight to shortly after, right when the front came through," Hill said. "Now we generally have southwest to west winds bouncing to 25 (mph)."
He said while the wind advisory continues until Tuesday evening, he expects conditions to be blustery rather than windy.
Pacific Power and Clark Public Utilities have also reported power outages, but the number of customers impacted has been lower compared to PGE.
Safety tips during a power outage
In the case of a power outage, the American Red Cross offers the following tips on how to get prepared and stay safe:
- Stay connected and monitor alert: Sign up for alert systems and apps for text alerts.
- Stock food and water: Store non-perishable food and water supplies. An unopened refrigerator will keep foods cold for about four hours. A full freezer will keep the temperature for about 48 hours. Throw out food refrigerated food that has been warmer than 40 degrees F.
- Know and plan for personal medical needs: Consider back up and non-power alternatives for medical devices and refrigerated medicine.
- Plan for heating your home: Use sealing around windows to insulate your home. Never use a generator, outdoor stoves or heaters indoors.
- Keep away from power lines: Stay at least 35 feet away from fallen power lines and anything they are touching. Always assume a power line is live and energized.
This is a developing story and it may be updated.
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