Saguaro
12-03-2007, 05:35 PM
OLYMPIA, Washington (AP) -- A powerful Pacific storm battered the Northwest on Monday, blocking roads near the coast with fallen trees and flooding, blacking out thousands of customers and icing up mountain highways.
Wind gusts to 100 mph were reported along the Oregon coast, with the highest reading at 129 mph at Bay City, the National Weather Service said. It said gusts hit 81 mph at Hoquiam, Washington.
A second blast expected later Monday could be the strongest storm coming ashore since 1999, weather service meteorologists said, issuing the region's first warning for hurricane-force wind.
The first wave of severe weather in the Northwest was expected to reach the Upper Midwest with snow on Tuesday, the weather service in Minneapolis, Minnesota, said. That region was battered by an ice and snow storm Saturday.
Most major roads in southwest Washington's Grays Harbor and Pacific counties were closed, and at one point early Monday nearly every road into Aberdeen, Washington, was closed.
"In 30 years of law enforcement, it's as bad as I've ever seen," said Grays Harbor County Sheriff Michael J. Whelan, whose own truck was smashed in his driveway by a falling tree.
All highways were closed Monday into Tillamook, Oregon, and people were evacuated from some motels and two recreational vehicle parks, Sheriff Todd Anderson said.
Drenching rain coupled with heavy snow melting in the mountains brought flood warnings for numerous rivers across western Washington and northwest Oregon.
"This has the shapings of a major problem in terms of the number of rivers that are potentially going to flood," said Rob Harper, spokesman for Washington's Emergency Management Division.
The Grays Harbor County Public Utility District reported 33,000 customers without electricity. Two of the utility's workers were injured, one seriously, when a windblown tree hit their lift truck bucket, sheriff's deputy David A. Pimentel said. Repair crews were pulled off the streets early Monday because of the hazard, utility officials said.
Pacific Power reported around 37,000 homes and businesses without power in Washington, northern California and Oregon, but said wind of 90 to 120 mph forced crews to be withdrawn from trouble areas in Oregon's hard-hit Clatsop County.
Pacific Power said its crews had to cut their way into Clatsop County through scores of downed trees blocking highways.
Doug Barker, managing editor of The Daily World in Aberdeen, said the newspaper had no electricity and only one reporter was able to get to work Monday morning. "We're powerless and trying to figure out how to print today," he said.
The wind snapped a Sitka spruce tree in Oregon that was about 700 years old and stood 206 feet tall. The tree was damaged a year ago, said state forester Paul Ries.
"The tree will now die," Ries said. "It's a sad event, but not unexpected. It's part of the natural cycle of the tree."
Just over 3 inches of rain fell in six hours Monday morning at Shelton and Bremerton, Washington, the weather service. That brought Shelton's 30-hour total to 5.72 inches.
Farther inland, an avalanche warning was in effect through Monday for the Cascades. Interstate 90, Washington's main east-west artery, was closed more than an hour for avalanche control work a few miles east of Snoqualmie Pass, and U.S. 2 was closed through Stevens Pass shortly before daybreak because of the avalanche danger.
Snow melting in the Cascades of Oregon raised a threat of flooding in the Willamette Valley.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/weather/12/03/storms.northwest.ap/index.html
Wind gusts to 100 mph were reported along the Oregon coast, with the highest reading at 129 mph at Bay City, the National Weather Service said. It said gusts hit 81 mph at Hoquiam, Washington.
A second blast expected later Monday could be the strongest storm coming ashore since 1999, weather service meteorologists said, issuing the region's first warning for hurricane-force wind.
The first wave of severe weather in the Northwest was expected to reach the Upper Midwest with snow on Tuesday, the weather service in Minneapolis, Minnesota, said. That region was battered by an ice and snow storm Saturday.
Most major roads in southwest Washington's Grays Harbor and Pacific counties were closed, and at one point early Monday nearly every road into Aberdeen, Washington, was closed.
"In 30 years of law enforcement, it's as bad as I've ever seen," said Grays Harbor County Sheriff Michael J. Whelan, whose own truck was smashed in his driveway by a falling tree.
All highways were closed Monday into Tillamook, Oregon, and people were evacuated from some motels and two recreational vehicle parks, Sheriff Todd Anderson said.
Drenching rain coupled with heavy snow melting in the mountains brought flood warnings for numerous rivers across western Washington and northwest Oregon.
"This has the shapings of a major problem in terms of the number of rivers that are potentially going to flood," said Rob Harper, spokesman for Washington's Emergency Management Division.
The Grays Harbor County Public Utility District reported 33,000 customers without electricity. Two of the utility's workers were injured, one seriously, when a windblown tree hit their lift truck bucket, sheriff's deputy David A. Pimentel said. Repair crews were pulled off the streets early Monday because of the hazard, utility officials said.
Pacific Power reported around 37,000 homes and businesses without power in Washington, northern California and Oregon, but said wind of 90 to 120 mph forced crews to be withdrawn from trouble areas in Oregon's hard-hit Clatsop County.
Pacific Power said its crews had to cut their way into Clatsop County through scores of downed trees blocking highways.
Doug Barker, managing editor of The Daily World in Aberdeen, said the newspaper had no electricity and only one reporter was able to get to work Monday morning. "We're powerless and trying to figure out how to print today," he said.
The wind snapped a Sitka spruce tree in Oregon that was about 700 years old and stood 206 feet tall. The tree was damaged a year ago, said state forester Paul Ries.
"The tree will now die," Ries said. "It's a sad event, but not unexpected. It's part of the natural cycle of the tree."
Just over 3 inches of rain fell in six hours Monday morning at Shelton and Bremerton, Washington, the weather service. That brought Shelton's 30-hour total to 5.72 inches.
Farther inland, an avalanche warning was in effect through Monday for the Cascades. Interstate 90, Washington's main east-west artery, was closed more than an hour for avalanche control work a few miles east of Snoqualmie Pass, and U.S. 2 was closed through Stevens Pass shortly before daybreak because of the avalanche danger.
Snow melting in the Cascades of Oregon raised a threat of flooding in the Willamette Valley.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/weather/12/03/storms.northwest.ap/index.html