Frozen

We’ve had some icy weather here in Oregon!

Friday we were supposed to get snow, schools all over Portland closed early, but the snow never really happened. Saturday morning it was 14 degrees and it started to snow but it was pretty dry and the wind was CRAZY!

I worked at one of the warming shelters in Portland for a half day. I debated on whether or not to drive or try and figure out public transportation. When I left my house near Oregon City (South of downtown Portland) there wasn’t snow on the ground. Like I said, the wind was crazy so it was blowing it all over!

I decided to drive and keep an eye on the weather. The freeway was clear and not icy but I drove about 40 mph to be safe. The wind was so strong (45mph apparently and -10 degrees!) THAT is what was scary on my drive.

I arrived in SE Portland and worked my shift. It was pretty full, thankfully. I mostly checked people in at the front, gave them blankets and showed them where their cot was. It was definitely an experience (and if you follow me on IG, you probably read about it). I am glad I did it. I wish I could have volunteered for more shifts, but the icy weather made me not want to try and venture out again. I definitely wasn’t going to drive and the MAX train shut down because of the ice.

When it was time to head home there was definitely snow on the ground. Stop lights were out everywhere. My car did ok but it was nerve-wrecking and I was very glad to get home.

The damage all over Portland was massive! I am SO grateful we didn’t lose power like we did in 2021! We were so worried about it!

We didn’t get much snow, it was more freezing rain and ice. On Sunday I woke up and outside was just a sheet of ice. The weather pretty much cancelled all the plans we had for the long weekend, understandably. (We had tickets to two hockey games with Logan.) I was just so thankful we had power and heat. It did make me think about how we NEED to get our fireplace/chimney fixed. It was deemed unusable when we bought the house and we just need to bite the bullet and pay to fix it so we can at least have a fire if we lose power in a storm.

The county opened like 10 warming shelters I think all over the city. I really hope the homeless took advantage of that and stayed safe.

I hope wherever you are, you are warm!