Repair crews scramble as winds knock out power

Winds gusting above 50 mph knocked down trees across Central Oregon — and with them, power lines.

In Tumalo, a tree crashed through a barn; fortunately,y the horses were not injured. Trees were on the ground as far as the eye could see, and so were live power lines.

Pacific Power asked everyone to keep a safe distance from any wires and any trees on the ground that could have power lines in them.

“You won’t know whether that’s a live wire or not, so just assume that it is,” said Angela Price, communications manager for the utility in Bend.

On Cline Falls Road in Tumalo, there was little question whether the power line was live or not. The pole was dangling dangerously in the wind, while a line was on the ground, spewing flames.

Crews from Pacific Power, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies and the Bend Fire Department arrived quickly, waiting for the power to be shut off before bringing the pole back up.

“It’s a lot of scattered outages for folks to get to. It’s not like we have one large event where we can all restore it very quickly,” Price said.

According to Pacific Power, around 1,000 customers lost power at some point during the night. By late Friday afternoon, 250 were still without electricity, but as the winds continue, so do calls to power crews.

Pacific Power’s large-scale outage Website at https://www.pacificpower.net/ed/po/ooi.html reports outages of over 500 customers.

Track Central Electric Cooperative updates at http://www.cec.coop/outage/

Their outage map is at https://ebill.midstateelectric.coop/oms/outageMap