STORM WATCH: 9,000 Still in The Dark After Last Night`s Wind Storm

At the height of the storm last night at 11:30 PM, about 65,000 PGE customers were without power.

Image courtesy: siec.coop

(PORTLAND) - Steadily working across the PGE service territory, line crews have reduced the number of customers without power to about 9,000.

The remaining outages mostly involve complicated work, such as broken poles, or are in more remote, heavily forested areas.

As a result, PGE says customers should expect many more hours of work before most are reconnected.

Also, while hundreds of customers have been restored in the past two hours, many other outages have been reported for the first time, mostly in the Mt. Hood - Highway 26 corridor.

More than 200 workers remained in the field this morning.

The crews rapidly restored tens of thousands of customers over night.

Shortly after midnight, 65,000 customers wee without power. That number was down to 18,000 by 7:00 AM.

Larger outages include the following areas: Molalla (1,900) Milwaukie (1,400), Oregon City (1,200), Aurora (about 600), and Sandy (500).

PGE crews worked all night and will restore remaining outages as quickly as possible.

Because many remaining outages are smaller in size and scattered throughout hundreds of square miles, it will take now take longer for crews to move from site to site.

The line crews will be out all day, and they appreciate their customers' patience.

Outages began to occur beginning at about 9:00 PM, but the bulk of the wind damage took place from 10:00 PM to 12:30 AM just as the storm began to calm.

Outages followed the path of the storm, beginning in the south and west, then spreading to PGE's central and eastern regions.

Customers are also reminded that if they do awake to an outage, don't assume PGE has been notified about your specific area.

Please call in and report it to PGE at (503) 464-7777 (in Portland); (503) 399-7717 (Salem) or (800)544-1795 (outside the Portland and Salem areas).

Anyone who notices that the lights are still out at their home, but the neighbors have power, should check the home's circuit breakers or fuses.

If they're "on", call PGE again. The problem could be a line into an individual home.

If you leave a light turned on near a street-side window, it makes this evaluation easier for everyone, including PGE crews.