About 1700 people in the south Willamette Valley are still without power this morning following an exceptionally strong spring storm. Flying limbs and falling trees brought down power lines across the territory serviced by Eugene Water and Electric Board.
EWEB spokeswoman Jeannine Parisi says EWEB follows a “hierarchy of repair” to make the system and public safe first, then prioritizes outage areas with the greatest number of customers affected.
Five spans of power lines went down along Highway 126 on the McKenzie River-- shutting down a lane of traffic. EWEB crews in the Thurston area report “howling winds” continued into late Friday afternoon.
Wind gusts of more than 40 miles per hour started around 2:30 am Friday. The storm caused power outages and property damage across Oregon.