1/7/2009 - Culver
by Matt McDonald
 
Like many people in Jefferson County, Fred Schneiter got an unexpected wake up call.
 
"It sounded like a freight train coming through. It was rattling everything out there," said Schneiter.
 
High winds whipped through Jefferson County in the early morning hours, taking out trees and tearing shingles from rooftops. Fortunately for Schneiter the wind left no damage on his property. Other places were not so lucky.
 
"We saw the flashes of the power lines touching each other when they went down," said Bill Sample of Culver.
 
A tree knocked out power to customers on Elbe Road near Culver and closed the street while power companies repaired the lines and public works cleaned the debris. But the most severe problems were for drivers.
 
"I got on top of the pass at six o'clock and all I saw in the darkness was barricades." said truck driver Scott Davis.
 
He was on his way from Portland to Madras on highway 26 when he found it closed, the Oregon Department of Transportation reporting multiple trees down across the road. Davis traveled around the closure, going through Hood River before heading for Central Oregon and plans to go back the same way.
 
"When I'm through, it will be about a hundred and fifty to two hundred miles extra," said Davis.
 
Highway 216 from Maupin to Warm Springs was closed as well. We captured images of an empty highway from the KOHD Skytracker helicopter. The only car on the road, a tow truck hauling a semi from the blockade. We could not get to the downed trees, the winds forcing our helicopter to turn back.
 
ODOT re-opened both roads by one thirty.