Late winter storm drops 5-12 inches of snow on much of Lincoln County, downing trees, closing roads, schools and businesses

 

By KENNETH LIPP and QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews

The central Oregon coast was shut down Thursday by a surprisingly cold, strong storm that dropped 5 inches of snow in Newport and a foot or more in coastal valleys, knocking out power to thousands, closing schools and businesses and stopping highway travel to the Willamette Valley.

Emergency service officials are worried that plummeting temperatures Thursday night will re-freeze roads and make travel even more treacherous until weather moderates Friday afternoon.

It’s the third most snowfall in Newport in the National Weather Service’s records, although the NWS does not have reliable data for the past two decades. Some longtime Lincoln County residents viewed Thursday’s snowstorm as an atypical but not anomalous event — occurring once every five to 10 years, perhaps.

Police and emergency agencies reported no major injuries or loss of life, but the freeze stopped much of the region in its tracks.

• The Oregon Department of Transportation closed 23 miles of Oregon Highway 34 starting four miles east of Waldport to the Benton County line due to downed trees. The road opened Thursday afternoon for one lane between milepost 4 and 9 with treacherous driving between downed trees. ODOT crews were staging equipment to begin trying to open most of the road to one lane of traffic by the end of the day Friday.
• Highway 20 about five miles east of Toledo was closed for several hours Thursday morning due to downed trees. It reopened by noon, but ODOT cautioned travelers to expect significant delays.
• U.S. Highway 101 was closed north of Lincoln City near the junction with Oregon Highway 18 to Neskowin by about 400 fallen trees. ODOT crews had cleared the road to north of Highway 18 by noon Thursday.
• Fourteen miles of Oregon Highway 229 was closed from its 90-degree bend south to just north of Siletz.
• Several miles of Highway 18 were closed by downed trees and later reopened. As of noon Thursday there was a new closure at Rose Lodge due to downed power lines. Continuing winds threaten to re-close inland corridors overnight.
• Between the county’s three electrical providers, about 6,800 customers were without power Thursday morning. Consumers Power Inc. customers in east Lincoln county won’t see their electricity restored until at least Thursday night and likely later because the cooperative lost both of its transmission lines into the county. There’s no timeline for restoration, and sustained poor conditions threaten more outages.
• All of Samaritan Health Services’ Lincoln County clinics were closed or delayed opening Thursday and some staff had trouble making it to work, leading its Lincoln City hospital to set up an incident command center.
• North Lincoln Fire & Rescue in Lincoln City closed a section of East Devils Lake Road as it responded to a rupture in a NW Natural gas line that resulted in 10- to 15-foot flames, with power lines also downed in the area. NW Natural offered to house 60 customers without service until repairs were made.
• Lincoln County schools, Oregon Coast Community College, and many city government buildings were closed Thursday, and the popular Newport Seafood and Wine Festival was delayed until noon Friday. The school district and college announced Thursday evening that schools would be closed again Friday.

A beautiful mess

The storm was unusual because parts of Lincoln County close to the ocean rapidly cleared of snow Thursday and oftentimes had bright, clear weather. You only had to go inland 3-4 miles to have a totally different experience.

“It’s beautiful looking, but it’s a real mess,” Jeff Berg, who lives nine miles up Oregon Highway 34 along the Alsea River, said mid-day Thursday. “I have 10 inches in my yard and it’s still snowing hard. There are trees down everywhere.”

Berg and much of the Tidewater community lost power about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday when snow-laden trees crashed across Consumers Power lines.

There were about 6,800 households and businesses in Lincoln County without power Thursday morning  — 1,700 customers of Central Lincoln People’s Utility District, which services coastal customers from Lincoln Beach to Yachats and some inland locations; 2,500 meters served by Consumers Power, the primary provider to inland communities including Siletz, Logsden, Eddyville, most  of Toledo and the Tidewater area; and about 2,600 customers of Pacific Power, whose coverage begins in Gleneden Beach, encompassing Lincoln City and the Highway 18 corridor.

Consumers Power spokesman John Kloor said both of the cooperative’s transmission lines in Lincoln County were out.

“One transmission line has been patrolled and the damage is known. The other is still being assessed,” Kloor told YachatsNews via email Thursday morning. “We expect both transmission lines to be hot by this evening. This will resolve many if not most outages.”

For full restoration CPI will have to repair its distribution lines, which sustained an unknown but presumably significant amount of damage. Kloor said crews are patrolling those lines on foot and will fly drones when weather conditions improve. Crews will face more treacherous conditions as Thursday evening wears on, Kloor said, but will keep working until power was restored.

Tom Fullmer, the director of the Waldport Chamber of Commerce, was working to start his generator Thursday morning at his house 10 miles up the Alsea. His neighborhood of 13 homes also lost power Thursday night and were among hundreds in the corridor who might not have power restored until Friday or later.

“We heard branches snapping and trees coming down all night and this morning,” he said. “It’s incredibly heavy snow. It’s beautiful, but it’s an awful lot of snow for Tidewater.”

Conditions were less severe up the Yachats River valley, where there was 10 inches of snow on the ground but the road was plowed and falling trees had spared Central Lincoln PUD lines.

“You could hear the trees breaking and coming down all night long,” said Andrea Scharf, who has lived 10 miles upriver for 23 years. “This almost seems like it could be a dress rehearsal for something larger.”

Erich Knudson, public information officer for Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue, said a main Consumer Power pole and wires was across Highway 34 at milepost 9.5 that blocked all traffic.

“The pole is literally upside down in the middle of the road,” he said after trying to get to COCF&R’s station in Tidewater. “There’s nothing you can do to get past it.”

The Tidewater station is a half-mile past the blocked area and inaccessible until the highway is cleared. But Knudson said there is lots of activity by lower Alsea residents between mileposts 4 and 9.

“One thing about Tidewater residents … they’re out there with ATVs and chainsaws helping their neighbors and trying to get things cleaned up,” he said. “They’re prepared.”

Not a usual storm

National Weather Service meteorologist Colby Newman told YachatsNews they had a report of 5 inches of snow in Lincoln City and 10 inches in Tillamook, which aligns with YachatsNews’ observations and reports of conditions from Yachats to Newport and the inland corridors.

It’s an unusual if not unheard of winter storm, Newman said.

Historical records for the central coast are often unreliable or not comprehensive, but Newman said there was good data for Newport on older snow events. The most snow on record was Jan. 21, 1943, when downtown Newport got 10 inches. Newport also saw 9 inches of snow Dec. 5, 1972.

But the weather service has not received reliable snow data from Newport since 2005, and Newman noted there was a large snow event in the state in 2008 that might have made a significant impact on the coast. And many county residents recall a heavier snow in 1969.

Snowfall is also highly localized — some spots might have seen their most snow ever Thursday, while others relatively nearby only got a dusting.

South of Yachats in the Tenmile area, Searose Hood and her family were hunkered down in their longtime family house where there was nine inches of snow on the ground four miles east of U.S. Highway 101.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had more than four inches here,” Hood said.

The ocean typically protects the area within a mile or two of the beach from frozen precipitation. Some passes and peaks several miles east see at least some snow regularly during winter.

“Usually when we’re getting air from off the ocean, it’s hard for it to snow all the way down to sea level because the ocean modifies the air mass’ temperature and keeps it above freezing,” Newman said.

That changes when a cold enough lower-level air mass moves in from the east, he said, and the air mass that moved in Wednesday night was particularly chilled.

“Yes, the air is still being modified by the ocean, and that’s what kept it from being snow Wednesday afternoon,” he said. “But it was really close to being snow. And once you got some of the cold air that was in the Willamette Valley and even eastern Oregon and Washington all the way to the coast, it was enough to support sticking snow down to the beach.”

Newman expects a hard freeze overnight.

“Tonight we’re going to definitely get cold, and we’re going to see temperatures drop down into the 20s,” he said. “I don’t even think it’s unrealistic that valleys just a little inland get down into the upper teens, which is pretty unusual for places like Siletz and Toledo.”

Temperatures Friday should rise into the low 40s and bring more thawing, but Coast Range passes probably won’t thaw until the mercury reaches the mid 40s on Saturday afternoon, Newman said. Another round of wintry mix is possible Saturday night.

Main roads snarled 

The coast was effectively isolated from the Willamette Valley — and its trauma care medical centers — into mid-day Thursday. The closest route for several hours was through Florence via Highway 126 to Eugene.

ODOT spokesperson Angela Beers Seydel said Highway 126 was slick but avoided major obstructions due to a recent $700,000 tree clearing project.

The wind and heavy snow brought down or endangered hundreds of trees along Highway 34 east of Waldport within hours of the storm’s beginning Wednesday evening, and at 8 p.m. ODOT made the call to close the road from Tidewater to the Lincoln-Benton county line.

Beers Seydel said crews would be working to clear the hundreds of trees from near Neskowin and on Highway 229 into Thursday evening and could end up backtracking and chasing new obstructions.

“We’re expecting more wind, which will knock down more trees, and the forecast temperatures don’t help us,” she said. “And because this hit such a big part of Oregon, it’s harder for us to move crews around to help. We are moving crews, we are moving equipment, but it’s going to be a while.”

Although there have been a lot of reports of people sliding off the road, Beers Seydel said, none were major wrecks. While more roads opened Thursday afternoon, freezing temperatures Thursday night were expected to turn slush into thick patches of ice, raising the danger for drivers.

“The real advice is stay home until this clears up if you can,” she said. “A lot of people can’t, and if you can’t, you’ve got to slow down, you’ve got to drive for conditions, you’ve got to expect there may be trees down, there may be rocks in the road.”

Lincoln County emergency manager Jenny Demaris echoed those remarks, adding that the snow storm is an important reminder to keep two weeks of supplies in your home before you’re stuck there. Families might want to consider having a plan to temporarily relocate vulnerable people closer to services when long-term isolation is possible, she said.

She said there might be a short window for some people to make it to a store for supplies, but a large portion of the county’s rural residents will have to wait out the storm.

“The message right now is, ‘Have you checked on your neighbors?’ ” Demaris said.

People careful, so far

Emergency responders say people seem to be respecting the hazardous conditions.

“We’ve had only a light number of calls,” said Jeff Mathia, general manager of Pacific West Ambulance. “Most everybody is staying put.”

The worry, he said, is what may happen overnight when temperatures drop below freezing again in many parts of the county.

Yachats’ ambulance provider had a similar report.

“It was an uneventful evening and no calls today so far,” Yachats Fire Department chief Frankie Petrick said, adding she was more concerned about what would happen when the temperatures hit the mid-20s in town and lower up the Yachats River Road. South Lincoln County Ambulance is located at the fire department.

Mary Jo Kerlin, spokeswoman for Samaritan Health Services in Lincoln County, said both of Samaritan’s coastal hospitals set up incident commands to ensure adequate staffing. Kerlin said Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport had few problems with staff getting to work, but Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital in Lincoln City faced more challenges.

“We are putting employees up in housing locally if they can’t travel home safely,” Kerlin said.

Samaritan closed its Lincoln County clinics Thursday with the exception of Samaritan Women’s Health and the urgent care clinic in Newport, which opened late.

• Kenneth Lipp is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at KenLipp@YachatsNews.com
• Quinton Smith is the editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com