PORTLAND, Ore. — Tens of thousands of residents around the Portland metro area have now been without power for four days. Downed trees and power lines are still prevalent in some areas, like the West Hills, leading to delays in restoring power and angst from residents.
"It's a mess," said Tony Ogden, a West Hills resident.
For the past four days, Ogden and his husband have been stuck in their home without power or Wi-Fi. Their road is still packed with snow.
"So, we're kind of stuck," Ogden summarized.
Surrounding neighbors are also still without power, including Sheri Homan, another West Hills resident.
"There's only so much a fireplace can do," said Homan. Homan and her family have been bundling up and sitting next to their fireplace to stay warm.
"My living room went down to 49 degrees this morning,” Homan said.
For days, they’ve all been waiting to hear from Portland General Electric (PGE).
"I think PGE could do a much better job communicating," Ogden said.
People across Portland told KGW that they’ve rarely heard from the power company since many lost electricity Saturday morning, though PGE said they are working as fast as they can after hundreds of thousands of people lost power this weekend.
"There was widespread damage across the entire service area," said John Farmer, a PGE spokesperson.
One of the biggest issues PGE has faced is massive trees and debris blocking roadways. That’s made it difficult for crews to restore power.
"Sometimes, we're going into these areas and discovering it's not just one or two trees that are in the way, but it's five, six or seven trees that are in the way," Farmer said.
Downed trees require tree-cutting crews to remove them before PGE crews can continue working. That’s just one of an assortment of problems the electric company is facing: Icy roads have also made it difficult for crews to get to some areas, leading to longer wait times for power restoration.
"Before we can provide an estimated restoration time on when we think power will be restored, our crews, with something of this scale, our crews need to go out and assess the situation," Farmer said.
PGE has 1,600 people working around the clock to restore power, the company said, and as of Tuesday evening, it had restored power to over 130,000 customers, replacing nearly 150 power poles and repairing 87 transformers in the process. Some crews are from out of state, and plan to stay until power is fully restored across the metro area, Farmer said.
As of 5 p.m., there are 25,430 customers without power, PGE said, with many continuing to wait for their power to return — but PGE warned that the ice storm could make things worse and advised residents to prepare for extended outages.
"Well, it's a little bit frustrating when you don't get answers," Homan said.