Crews continue make progress restoring power to area residents, though many still remain without electricity.
UPDATED: Sunday, March 3rd at 7:30 a.m.
Power Outage Updates
The latest update from Eugene Water and Electric Board shows around 200 customers were without power in Eugene. The last upriver transmission line was brought back on-line and restorations in the Camp Creek, Deerhorn, Cedar Flats, Vida and other areas in the McKenzie River valley are well underway.
Starting with more than 14,000 customers out of service on Monday, February 26th, fewer than 2,000 EWEB customers now remain without service throughout the region.
14 EWEB crews were deployed to the McKenzie River area Saturday morning, where damage from the snow storm and falling trees was most severe. With cell service still down in the area, reports from field crews are limited to radio communication, making it more difficult to keep upriver restoration information current.
After this weekend’s push, EWEB hopes that it will have 1-2 days’ work left, not including revisiting some areas that had temporary service repairs done during the height of activity. Preliminary damage to EWEB’s system from this storm is estimated at 3-million-dollars. Assuming Governor Brown’s Declaration of Emergency is approved by the federal government, EWEB expects to be reimbursed for 75% of eligible storm costs.
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After restoring power to approximately 1,200 customers Saturday, Emerald People’s Utility District reports about 2,200 customers remain without power. 69 line workers and 10 tree trimmers will be out again Sunday to get EPUD customers back online.
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Lane Electric Cooperative says power has been restored to 70 percent of the 10,130 outages that occurred during the peak of the storm. The company believes it will restore power to the remainder of its service territory by Thursday, March 7, with some exceptions. Extreme or unique cases and outlying areas, including along the McKenzie and near Fall Creek and Lowell, could take a few more days due to degree of damage and accessibility issues. Over the past two days, Lane Electric conducted both helicopter and on-the-ground surveillance throughout the entire service territory. 23 crews are working on restoring power to Lane Electric customers.
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Douglas Electric reports that people in areas of North County such as Elkton and Scottsburg, which were hit particularly hard, won’t receive power for up to three weeks. The most recent update shows 5,244 of their 9,013 customers are still without power Sunday.
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Pacific power is reporting that fewer than 1000 of their customers are still without power in Roseburg.
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Springfield Utility Board is reporting that power has been restored to all customers as of last night.
Douglas County
Douglas County is still in a state of emergency. Road, utility, emergency and volunteer crews continue to clear roads, assist residents and restore services as safely and quickly as possible. 90% of main county roads are open with two lane access. A statement from the county says this is not a snow clean up, this is a debris and massive timber clean-up project.
Douglas County also reports the Elkton Gas Station is being powered by generator and is open to supply gasoline, diesel and propane. Today they will be open from 10:00 to 4:30 pm. The Red Cross opened a shelter at Elkton High School on Saturday, March 2nd. Other area shelters operating on Saturday included The Dream Center (813 SE Lane Ave., Roseburg) and Lookingglass Grange (7426 Lookingglass Road, Roseburg).
City of Drain residents are asked to continue to conserve water until further notice.
Community Information
Lane County’s non-emergency call center is officially closed. The call center was for community members who had non-emergency inquiries related to winter weather. The non-emergency call center was open for four days and took more than 375 calls. The peak day for calls was Thursday, February 28, at more than 150. The number of daily calls had fallen to 32 by Saturday, March 2.
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The Egan Warming Centers will activate Sunday night. They are on standby for Monday (3/4) & Tuesday (3/5).
Closures
Buford Park and Mt. Pisgah remain closed due to numerous hazards. There are downed trees and hazardous hanging branches (widow makers) on the trails. Also, there are down power lines on some trails. At this time there is no target date in mind to reopen Mt. Pisgah.
Lane County Parks is actively enforcing this closure and says they will ticket any vehicles that trespass the closed parks. Park visitors have been violating the closure; their cars were blocking the entrance and preventing access for parks staff and emergency services.
