Windstorm Causes Outages for 2,006
February 8, 2008
A windstorm dropped trees and tree limbs onto power lines throughout Columbia River PUD's service area early Thursday, causing 9 separate outages that affected 2,006 PUD customers.
The largest outage affected 1,451 customers in St. Helens when a tree limb fell on a power line near Kaster Road at 6:30 a.m. PUD crews removed the limb and repaired the line, restoring power at 9:00 a.m.
Other outages affected customers on Pittsburg, Brooks and Robinette Roads in St. Helens, Elk Creek Road in Rainier, Tide Creek Road in Deer Island, Achilles Road in Warren, and Gilkison and Meier Roads in Scappoose.
PUD crews restored power to the last five affected customers at 11:50 a.m.
PUD Engineering and Operations Manager Steve Hursh reminded residents to stay away from downed power lines and to call the PUD immediately at (503) 397-1844 to report them.
"Always assume a downed line is energized and could be deadly," said Hursh.
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For more information, contact Libby Calnon, PUD Communication Specialist, at lca@crpud.org or (503) 366-3264.
Columbia River People's Utility District provides electric service to 18,500 customers in Columbia and Multnomah Counties in Oregon.
The PUD employs 48 people and had FY2006 gross revenues of $28.8 million.