By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
Much of Lincoln County headed toward normal Thursday as Central Lincoln Public Utility District crews finished restoring power to all but 76 customers, school resumed, lines disappeared at gas stations and all the highways to the Willamette Valley cleared of ice and debris.
The ice storm took most people by surprise Saturday afternoon when rain from the west hit frigid winds blowing in from the east. That coated trees with ice, which then fell, took out power lines and isolated the county.
As a result, many of the county’s 50,000 residents were on their own – turning to family, friends, neighbors, some community organizations and emergency service agencies for help.
“We knew weather was coming … but our understanding was that Lincoln City was going to be at the southern edge,” CLPUD spokesman Mark Freeman said Thursday. “… it obviously moved south and west more than we expected.”
But there was little the utility could do.
The Bonneville Power Administration, which supplies all of Central Lincoln’s power, had falling trees take out two main lines into the county. Central Lincoln then lost several of its main feeder lines in Toledo, Siletz and Newport areas to the ice and trees.
At the height of the outages almost half of Central Lincoln’s customers – 19,000 of 40,000 residential, commercial and industrial meters – were out. Some came back relatively quickly Sunday and Monday; others until were out until Wednesday and even Thursday.
Thursday night 76 customers were still without power – 17 of those will need homeowner repairs to their home’s equipment, said Freeman. Another 186 in Toledo lost power for several hours Thursday afternoon when CLPUD lines from Central Lincoln and Consumers Power touched.
Utility officials – backed up by comments from counterparts in similarly hard-hit Lane County – said it was the highest number of weather-caused outages they experienced in decades.
“We have people who’ve been here 30 years and they’re saying it’s the worst they’ve ever seen,” Freeman told YachatsNews.
On Thursday night Gov. Tina Kotek declared a state of emergency for Oregon due to the winter ice storm that swept into the state almost a week ago, leaving behind widespread damage, power outages and 13 deaths. Lincoln County, the cities of Newport and Lincoln City and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians had already declared such an emergency.
Freeman said such a declaration from the state enables it to seek reimbursement from the federal government to cover some of its storm-related costs.
Repair crews struggled Saturday and Sunday to untangle thousands of ice-covered trees that fell into CLPUD’s main transmission lines in the Siletz and Toledo areas that serve those communities and communities to the west.
Central Lincoln was able to restore service Sunday and early Monday to most customers stretching from Tenmile through Yachats, Waldport and much of Newport, although there were pockets of outages through Wednesday.
Monday afternoon power came back to parts of north Newport, including the Fred Meyer, Safeway and Walmart stores, and businesses and gas stations along Highway 101.
But most gas stations were out of service because tankers could still not get over from the valley. Grocery stores that closed due to lack of power or couldn’t run freezers or refrigerators on generators lost meat and other perishables. A large assisted living center in north Newport had to evacuate its residents.
Service north of Newport – including the Agate Beach neighborhood and communities of Beverly Beach, Depoe Bay and Lincoln Beach – didn’t get power restored until Monday night and Tuesday.
Just as CLPUD was turning the corner on repairs Tuesday afternoon, 19,000 customers lost electricity when two Newport-area transmission lines went down as ice thawed. Both came back within hours.
Will examine response
Central Lincoln had four crews made up of 3-4 linemen initially working the outages. They were joined early in the week by six crews from other utilities under a mutual aid agreement. Three CLPUD single person crews worked on smaller issues.
“The crews are mostly now working on individual problems, Freeman said Thursday evening. “We’re literally down to ones and twos.”
Freeman said once Central Lincoln gets a handle on the outages, does cleanup work and stabilizes repairs, it will release the mutual aid crews – likely to go help utilities in the valley.
Line crews worked 16-hour shifts – 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Some head home to sleep, others who can’t make it home or are from out of town are put up in motels.
Central Lincoln set up a command center at its headquarters in Newport, but even it ran into problems when the power went and its generator couldn’t heat the building. A customer service representative spent the night answering phones wrapped in a blanket, Freeman said.
A helicopter hired to inspect lines deep in coastal forests was delayed in Medford because of bad weather. It finally arrived at the Newport airport on Monday – a city, state and federal holiday – only to find no one there to refuel it.
Freeman said CLPUD called city manager Spencer Nebel, who hustled airport staff out to help. The helicopter’s reconnaissance proved invaluable, he said.
“Nobody can do this on their own,” Freeman said. “It’s nice when everybody can work toward a common goal – and there’s lots of examples of that.”
The utility will hold a post-mortem of its storm response in a few weeks. It will look at everything from logistics to command to customer service to how it handled laundry for out-of-town crews.
“We look at what worked and what didn’t,” he said. “There’s a lot of things that go on behind the scenes.”
Freeman said customers – for the most part – are understanding of situation and issues arising from such a large storm. Such a widespread and sometimes long outage should also help spur more people to examine their homes or businesses and how they can better prepare for when the lights go out.
“We appreciate all of our customers’ patience and support … the support really helps with morale,” he said. “But what our customers have gone through – and those few remaining – it’s been a lot.”
- Quinton Smith is the editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com
I’m not clear from the story if four crews of three to four linemen each are all of Central Lincoln’s available crews. If so, or even if there are a few more, it certainly does not seem adequate for the size of this utility’s territory, particularly if climate change ends up causing more incidents like the one we just had.