Windy conditions will continue Wednesday around the Portland metro area but should start to diminish starting Wednesday night.
Wednesday’s forecast calls for east-southeast winds between 15 to 21 mph, with gusts topping out at 33 mph. Speeds will decline Wednesday night to 9 to 13 mph, with gusts up to 20 mph predicted, according to the National Weather Service.
Clark Public Utilities workers responded to four incidents Tuesday morning involving trees into wires or downed power lines.
There were 431 customers without power as of 8:20 a.m. Tuesday, the utility’s spokeswoman Erica Erland said. A total of 518 customers had their power restored in the last 24 hours, she said. The Tuesday morning outages affected people in Hockinson, Camas and Battle Ground. The outages were related to trees and affected around 100 customers combined, Erland said.
Law enforcement and firefighters were initially dispatched to most of the calls for arcing and downed wires through Tuesday’s early morning hours, but none of the incidents caused significant issues on the roads. Most of the responses were followed up by requests for county public utility workers, according to emergency radio traffic monitored at The Columbian.
Clark County prepped for more weather-related outages Tuesday night as gusts between 30 to 40 mph were in the forecast for the Portland metro area. Stronger gusts were expected on the east side of the metro area and in the Columbia River Gorge, according to the National Weather Service.
Possible impacts included downed trees, scattered power outages and difficult travel for high-profile vehicles, such as tractor-trailers, SUVs and light trucks.
Erland encouraged people to report outages and get updates at the utility’s website or by calling 360-992-8000.
