3 killed by fallen power line in Oregon ice storm
Three people in Portland, Ore., died and a baby was injured Wednesday after a power line fell on a parked car amid an ice storm in the Pacific Northwest.
The fire department in Portland responded shortly before noon Wednesday to reports of a downed power line and people appearing to be electrocuted, officials said in a statement.
It was later determined that a branch fell onto the cables, causing the line to fall onto an SUV. The victims are believed to have gotten out of the car before being electrocuted, the department added.
The three individuals — two adults and one teenager — were found dead when firefighters arrived at the scene, The Associated Press reported. A resident took the baby from one of the people lying in the street to try to save its life, and they were later brought to the hospital.
A power company deenergized the line, Portland Fire & Rescue confirmed.
Freezing rain touched down on the city earlier this week, causing icy roads and mountain highways that made driving and walking nearly impossible.
Oregon’s Department of Transportation closed down several parts of the state’s highways and dispatched plows to lay down sand and salt, while a number of school districts canceled classes due to slick roads.
An estimated 41,149 outages were reported in the Beaver State as of Thursday morning, according to poweroutage.us.
The National Weather Service of Portland shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it had measured about 0.40 inches of ice Wednesday, calling the parking lot outside of its office “an ice rink.”
A large part of the region was under warnings Wednesday, but the alerts were eventually reduced to just a few parts of southwest Washington and northwest Oregon by later in the day.
The Weather Service, however, warned that another round of freezing rain and heavy snowfall in the mountains is expected to hit the Pacific Northwest over the coming days, beginning later Thursday. Forecasters predicted between a quarter-inch and half-inch of ice through Saturday morning and warned of dangerous travel and power outages.
The areas likely to be impacted the heaviest are the eastern Portland metro area and the western Columbia River Gorge, according to the AP.
In addition to the three deaths Wednesday, at least seven others were killed due to fallen trees and suspended hypothermia from last weekend’s storm, per the news wire.
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