For thousands of Portland General Electric (and West Oregon Electric Co-Op, at least in Timber) customers, high winds meant power outages across the region, some overnight and into Tuesday morning.
As of 6:15 a.m., more than 6,500 PGE customers remained without power, many of them in western Washington County locales like Banks, Gales Creek, Manning, and Glenwood.
Further details were difficult to obtain as the usually detailed PGE outage map was, in an ironic twist, suffering a partial outage itself Tuesday morning.
A National Weather Service Wind Advisory remains in place until 6 p.m. Tuesday.
In Banks, bus route 101 had to alter the normal route for student pickup due to a downed tree on Upper Cedar Canyon, shifting instead to picking students up at Gheen Road at 7:20 a.m. and at “lower cedar and cedar canyon” at 7:40 a.m., according to the Banks School District.
These were the only routes affected as of 6:15 a.m.
Social media users in the area reported debris scattered across area roadways, including a fallen tree blocking Old Wilson River Road, though Forest Grove Fire & Rescue crews were said to be on the scene by a witness and according to fire and EMS tracking app Pulsepoint.
Chas Hundley is the editor of the Banks Post and sister news publications the Gales Creek Journal and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.
