Outage Update – December 25

CHRISTMAS DAY UPDATE: 8:30 PM

Merry Christmas! Everyone is back on.

With so many gone for the holiday, it’s possible someone might still be off and we don’t know. If that’s the case please call us right away at (503) 397-1844. We used our meter reading system and some good old fashioned leg work to check as thoroughly as possible today to make sure we didn’t miss anyone. But, given the extent of the damage and the number of customers affected, it’s possible there might be a few customers who have electric services that need additional repairs.

Thank you for your patience and support this week.

We couldn’t have finished today without all the help we received: Salem Electric, Bonneville Power Administration, Clark PUD, Emerald PUD, Clatskanie PUD, Tillamook PUD, Portland General Electric, and Potelco all sent crews to assist us. A total of 13 crews worked this outage, including ours. Thank you to all of them!

CHRISTMAS DAY UPDATE: 5:30 PM

We have fewer than 10 customers still without power!
We now expect everyone to be restored tonight.

CHRISTMAS DAY UPDATE: 3:00 PM

We are making good progress today. About 30 customers remain without power.

Crews recently restored power in the areas listed below. If you live in one of these areas and are without power, please call us at (503) 397-1844.

• Flint Drive
• Grey Cliffs Drive
• Wickstrom Road
• Burma Road
• Highway 30 in Warren
• Hankey Road
• Wortman Road
• SW 2nd Street in Scappoose
• Pittsburg Road
• Dart Creek Road
• Gensman Road
• Siercks Road

CHRISTMAS DAY UPDATE: 1:00 PM

Recent areas of restoration include:

• Hankey Road
• Larson Road
• Davidson Drive
• Brooks Road
• Bachelor Flat Road
• Church Road
• Highway 30, Rainier

If you are in these areas and still without power, please call (503) 397-1844 to report your outage. Thank you!

We have 8 line crews are working in all parts of our service area today.

OUTAGE UPDATE: CHRISTMAS DAY: 5:30 AM

Merry Christmas, everyone. We have about 90 customers still without power. The majority are affected by individual service line issues, which means there are still almost 90 locations in need of repair.

We want to make sure we don’t miss anyone – so customers who are without power are encouraged to give us a call to report their outage again – just in case. Please call (503) 397-1844 to talk with our answering service. They won’t be able to give you time estimates or crew locations.We are also checking system status from our office, but we want to make sure we don’t miss anyone.

Some crews who have been out working all night, and more crews will be starting in an hour or so.

OUTAGE UPDATE: CHRISTMAS EVE: 6:00 PM

About 400 customers remain without power. We are continuing to work on areas with large numbers of customers.

Columbia River PUD’s crews will be joined by crews from other utilities again tomorrow to continue the restoration effort.

Thank you for all the encouragement and kind words you have shared with our crews and our office staff.

OUTAGE UPDATE: CHRISTMAS EVE: 2:00 PM

This awesome Clatskanie crew worked for days in their own service area and now they are here to help us. We filled them with coffee and sent them out to Rainier to restore customers.

Here’s our latest update: Several hundred customers remain without power. We are continuing to work on areas where large numbers of customers are without power. We expect to begin working on the smaller outages by tomorrow, perhaps later tonight in some areas.

We have crews here assisting us from: Bonneville Power Administration, Clatskanie PUD, Emerald PUD, Tillamook PUD, PGE, and Potelco.

Current work areas include: Apairy Road, Merrill Creek Road, Saxton Road, Meissner Road, Lower Nicolai Road, East 2nd St. in Rainier, and Orr Road.

The crews from Tillamook and Potelco had sleep last night, so they will work through the night tonight. Other crews worked through last night so we will have them take a safety break tonight.

Columbia River PUD’s crews will be joined again tomorrow by crews from Tillamook PUD, Potelco, and Clark PUD to continue restoring service.

OUTAGE UPDATE: CHRISTMAS EVE – 10:00 AM

Crews worked through the night last night and will work until late tonight before taking a safety rest break. They will return early on Christmas morning to continue repairs.

We are still working in areas where large numbers of customers are out. Our engineering & IT staff are confirming our records for locations where individual customers are out. Once the major repairs are complete, crews will be dispatched throughout our entire service… area to repair these individual outages.

We are compiling a list of roads where crews are currently working. Some work locations include:

• Pittsburg Road
• Hankey Road
• Orr Road
• Meserve Road/ Old Rainier Road
• Meissner Road
• Merrill Creek Road
• Fern Hill Road
• Apairy Road

OUTAGE UPDATE: CHRISTMAS EVE – 6:00 AM

We now estimate we are down to about 1,000 customers without power.
Here is a look at our outage map as of this morning.

We will bring our phones back from the answering service around 8:00 AM.

The Warming Center in our community room is open now and will be open at least until 5:00 PM.

Board Member Jake Carter will be in the warming center from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Please come have a cup of coffee with him if you’d like to talk about how the outage restoration is going.

Overnight, we made repairs on these Roads. (Note – there are more repairs to be made in most of these places.)
Brinn & Anderson Roads
Grey Cliffs Drive
Elk Creek Road
Robinette Road
Nicolai Road up to Anlicker
Stone Road
Smith Road to Gensman
Smith & Dan Cupp
Neer City Road
Green Road
Tide Creek to Highland Road
Pittsburg Road

Tillamook PUD, Cowlitz PUD and PGE are all helping to find more crews.

OUTAGE UPDATE: Wednesday 10:00 PM

We will be signing off of Facebook for the evening shortly. We have a crew at each of the areas where we have hundreds of customers out. In all of those areas, there are multiple issues to address including damaged poles, trees through lines, etc. They will most likely work through the night and through tomorrow, although individual crews will take a safety rest breaks. Another crew from Clatskanie will join us in the morning.

OUTAGE UPDATE: Wednesday 8:00 PM

All crews are working through the night tonight. Here is a quick look at our outage map. We had far more broken poles north of Warren than we did from there south. Goble was also affected by a BPA outage until this morning. We have 8 crews out working now and they will work throughout night and into tomorrow.

OUTAGE UPDATE: Wednesday 3:00 PM

Damage in our service area was more extensive than our crews have seen before. We are receiving additional damage reports from them when they come in to pick up supplies, which is causing us to extend our repair timeframe estimates.

For some customers, repairs may take 2-3 more days. If you have the option of staying with a family member or friend, that might not be a bad idea.

Columbia County Warming Center will be open tonight. The center opens at 6:30 and you can check in and come and go between 6:30 to 9:30. They have restroom facilities and one shower. The center will stay open overnight until 8:00 AM. It can accommodate 30 people total; they recommend checking in early if possible.

Our Community Room here at PUD will be open at least until 7PM tonight and then again at 7AM tomorrow. We have coffee, cell phone charging stations, and restroom facilities but no showers.

Recent areas of restoration:

• Siercks Road
• New Kirk Road
• Lentz Road
• Flint Drive, except one customer with a broken pole
• Hammond Road
• Hirtzel Road
• Nicolai to Beaver Homes
• Beaver Homes to Walker
• Mountain View

OUTAGE UPDATE: Wednesday 10:15 AM

Our linemen are telling us this is the most significant outage they can remember. There is significant damage throughout our service area and thousands remain without power.

There are now 154 roads where trouble spots have been reported. (Some roads have multiple trouble spots.)

It is likely that for some outages will last at least another couple of days.

We have additional help coming this afternoon from Emerald PUD.

Clark PUD, PacifiCorp, and BPA are also trying to find crews for us, and we have reached out to many other utilities.

Our crews currently working in Scappoose, Goble, Rainier. Major trouble spots in St. Helens and other areas are on the list for today.

Our priority is public safety, then areas with large numbers of customers out, then outages affecting smaller numbers of customers. We know being out of power is frustrating for you and we greatly appreciate your patience and kind words.

See how we restore power.

OUTAGE UPDATE: Wednesday 7:30 AM

Crews came back around 6:00 this morning and are out working again.

More crews: We have had a crew here from Salem Electric since Monday. Other utilities are sending us crews as soon as their own repairs are complete.

See how we restore power.

OUTAGE UPDATE: Tuesday 7:00 PM

Line crews are continuing to restore power throughout our service area. They will work until late tonight and then take a rest break and return in the morning. (They have been working since 8 AM Monday.) Our answering service is handling calls until then.

OUTAGE UPDATE: Tuesday 5:00 PM

Goble area customers: The BPA transmission line that serves our substation in Goble is still damaged. BPA is estimating about 2-3 hours to make repairs. Once the substation is energized, we will begin energizing the distribution lines in the Goble area. We still have many trouble spots there, which we are working to get through. Thank you for your patience!

CURRENT WORK AREAS:

• Lower Doan Road
• JP West Road
• Ross Road, then to St. Helens
• Neer City and Brownlee

Outage Update: Tuesday 1:00 PM

RECENTLY RESTORED:

• Hazen, Bennett, some of Stone – 7 customers still out on Stone
• Old Columbia River Highway
• Fernhill Road to Beaver Springs Road
• Apple Valley

If you are in one of these areas and your power is still out, please call (503) 397-1844 to let us know.

CURRENT WORK AREAS:

• Neer City
• Dutch Canyon
• Viewcrest
• Apiary Road

Total calls so far: About 3,700

Total known trouble spots: 135

OUTAGE UPDATE: Tuesday 10:30 AM

Estimate 3,500 customers without power at this time.

Recent restorations:Additional customers served by Tarbell Substation, the Old Portland Road area, the Siercks/Armstrong/Pisgah Home area. If you are in one of those locations and you are still without power, please call (503) 397-1844 to let us know.

Crews are currently working in these areas:

• Fernhill Road
• Neer City/Brownlee Road
• EJ Smith/Apple Valley Road
• Columbia River Hwy at Tide Creek.

We have a coffee & cell phone charging station available in our lobby. Please stop by if you’d like to charge your phone.

Outage Update – Tuesday 6:00 AM

Estimating 4,000 still out.

Crews are currently working in these areas:
Robinette/Gensman/Smith – Saint Helens
Canaan Road – Deer Island
Fernhill Road – Rainier
South Scappoose

Restoration Overnight:
SCAPPOOSE: Dike Road, Dutch Canyon, 4th Street, Keys Road, Callahan, Coal Creek, EM Watts,
WARREN: Most locations
ST. HELENS: N. Vernonia Road, Some of Pittsburg, some Yankton area,
DEER ISLAND : Canaan Road
RAINIER: Townsend, Parkdale

Many downed trees and downed lines are still causing dangerous conditions. Remember: Stay safe – stay away from downed lines! Report them at (503) 397-1844

OUTAGE UPDATE: MONDAY 10:30 PM

We now estimate 5,000 out, down from 10,000.

Our phones have been transferred to the answering service for the night. They will be transferred back to us at 6AM tomorrow.

Salem Electric is almost here; they’ll work overnight with our crews. We have crews working in the northern, central and southern portions of our service area.

We know of 125 individual trouble spots where lines are down, poles are broken, etc. Some customers will likely be out for a few days. We appreciate your patience and we want you to know that we are working as quickly as safety allows to restore your power.

Updates are being posted on Facebook at www.facebook.com/crpud

OUTAGE UPDATE: 8:00 PM

We have 125 individual trouble spots reported; crews will work through the night to address them.

Linemen from Salem Electric are in route to assist with outage restoration.

We recommend preparing to be without power for a few days, although we are working as quickly as possible to restore power for all of you.

Thank your for your patience and encouragement!

OUTAGE UPDATE: 6:00 PM

We are working with BPA to restore the transmission service to our substations this evening. How this will affects individual customers can’t be determined due to the high number of downed lines.

PUD crews will work through the night to repair outages. More than 100 trouble spots have been reported in our service area. We estimate there are about 9,000 customers currently affected.

Please plan to be out of power overnight, although we will be working through the night to restore power to as many of you as possible.

Updates are being posted on Facebook at www.facebook.com/crpud

OUTAGE UPDATE: 2:00 PM

Today’s windstorm cause multiple trouble spots throughout our service area.

Outages on BPA transmission lines are affecting some PUD customers in Scappoose, Warren, St. Helens and Goble.

Additional outages caused by downed trees and downed limbs are affecting other customers from Scappoose through Rainier.

PUD crews are dispatched throughout our service area to make repairs.

To report your outage, please call (503) 397-1844.

Phones have been very busy due to high call volume, so please try back if you get a busy signal.