Alarms went off, but for thousands of Portlanders early Wednesday, the lights did not. An early-morning outage left dark kitchens, blinking (or completely dead) traffic signals, and pockets of confusion across the metro area. The blackout hit hardest on the west and southwest sides of the city, stretched as far south as Canby, and even clipped small coastal communities. Utility crews were dispatched across the region, and company updates said most customers were expected to see power restored shortly.
As reported by KGW, Portland General Electric said 4,252 customers were without power as of 5 a.m., with outages peaking at about 6,000 customers earlier in the morning. KGW added that nearly 5,000 customers had been offline shortly before 5 a.m. and that crews were working to isolate the trouble and start repairs.
Where the outage hit
Portland General Electric’s interactive outage map showed clusters concentrated in southwest Portland, with circuits running toward Canby where crews focused initial repairs. On the central Oregon coast, Pacific Power reported a separate, smaller outage near Lincoln City that affected roughly 200 customers.
How to check and stay safe
“Report any downed line immediately to PGE by calling 503-464-7777 or 800-544-1795,” Portland General Electric advises on its outage page. Customers should steer clear of downed wires, move to a safe location if needed, and consult official outage pages for estimated restoration times.
Context
The storms that rolled through this week have nudged outage counts higher across the metro. Hoodline reported an earlier April outage that cut power to more than 12,000 PGE customers in Southwest Portland. Utilities say crews have been stretched by back-to-back events and are working in rotations to speed repairs.
Crews were on scene and most customers were expected to have power back shortly, according to KGW. For up-to-the-minute status, Pacific Power customers can consult Pacific Power outage page, and PGE customers should use the utility's interactive outage map.
