Repair crews wrap up late, winds linger into weekend

It was more than 20 hours into Andy Burford’s shift with Central Electric. Twenty hours spent cleaning up the messes caused by more than 50 mph winds sweeping through Central Oregon Friday, knocking the power out to thousands of homes.

“I was in bed, heard the wind blowing. Figured I was going to be called into work,” Burford said Friday evening. “Heard the phone ring, and I was heading into work.”

Burford and dozens of other linemen braved the blustery elements on Friday to restore power to homes in Tumalo, the hardest-hit area around Bend. But according to Central Electric Member Services Director Jeff Beaman, the concentrated location made things easier for crews.

“If we had widespread outages, it gets crews running hither and yonder across the service area, and it expends the outage times,” Beaman said. “With a more compressed footprint, outages were taken care of faster.”

Crews brought power back to more than 700 CEC members on Friday. By the evening, only a dozen or so were left without power, and all were back in service by about 8 p.m. And despite a new National Weather Service high wind warning for Saturday, there’s optimism that the worst has already blown by.

“I expect that we won’t have the same degree, because a lot of the weaknesses in the trees may have been exposed today,” Beaman said.

“But that doesn’t mean we won’t have a repeat,” he added,

Indeed, winds kept gusting close to 40 mph Saturday, while a Crooked River Ranch weather station reported a 61 mph gust around 1:30 p.m. But while other parts of the state reported new or continued outages, Central Oregon was seeing a bit less wind and fewer problems.

But for those who may be out on the lines again, it comes with the territory.

“If we have to work this weekend, it’s fine with us,” said Burford. “It’s something you have to do to get the power back.”