To report a power outage, call the Clark Public Utilities directly at 360-992-8000.
Wind gusts approaching 50 mph caused problems throughout Clark County and the region Sunday afternoon, downing trees and causing thousands of customers to lose power. By sunset winds eased and the trouble appeared to lessen.
But some electric customers spent at least part of the evening in the dark. According to Clark Public Utilities, the greatest concentration of outages at 8 p.m. were in Amboy and Yacolt, followed by Camas and Washougal.
Erica Erland, a spokeswoman for the utility, said the number of people without power fluctuated like the wind. At gusts peaked, about 4,500 were without power, and a later check of the utility’s outage map showed 10,000 with service disrupted.
“We’ve got quite a few outages scattered around north Clark County,” she said at about 4 p.m. But problems were everywhere.
A breaker that opened in a Vancouver-area substation caused the single largest outage, in the Cascade Park neighborhood.
Wind was the culprit. The National Weather Service registered gusts up to 46 mph at Vancouver’s Pearson Field Sunday afternoon. Other peak gusts reported by the weather service included 57 mph at Jantzen Beach, 51 mph near Ridgefield, and 45 mph near Battle Ground. The wind followed more than 1.5 inches of rain which fell Saturday evening into Sunday morning, softening the ground.
No matter where you looked in Clark County, the windstorm downed trees and branches, and debris was scattered across roadways.
In Vancouver a big tree fell blocking East Mill Plain Boulevard at about 97th Avenue, causing a traffic problem. It was one of more than 30 calls to which city crews responded. Several streets were fully or partially blocked, according to a news release.
“It’s taken a toll everywhere. We’re working both sides of the city,” said Ron Fredin, Public Works Operations street supervisor. Clark County had its crews out, too.
CRESA, the county’s emergency dispatch agency, was deluged by dozens of calls received between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Most were to report power outages, but there were reports of downed trees, downed power lines and the like. None were major enough to require the services of medics or the fire department, according to public call logs and a dispatcher.
Traffic signals were out in about 15 Vancouver intersections. A typical problem was in east Vancouver’s busy 192nd Avenue corridor, where traffic lights were flashing red in all directions. Motorists treated them as four-way stops, as they should, but it slowed traffic.
The storm was regional in scope. In downtown Portland, a tree fell on a woman’s SUV as she was driving near Portland State University, trapping her inside. She was reported injured, but conscious and alert. At Fourth and Alder streets, scaffolding blew down, causing street closures and property damage but no reported injury. There was minor damage reported in Salem, Ore., too.
Cleanup is likely to take a few days. Information on how to dispose of tree-related debris is available on the city of Vancouver’s Solid Waste website at www.cityofvancouver.us/solidwaste.
Much milder weather is forecast today, with morning fog giving way to afternoon sun, light breezes and a high of 62 degrees.
