At a Glance
- Abandoned or crashed vehicles littered roadways in Portland, Oregon.
- Several roadways remained closed Thursday morning.
- More than 40,000 power outages were reported across California.
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Abandoned or crashed vehicles littered streets and highways in Portland Wednesday into Thursday morning after a winter storm dumped more than 10 inches of snow on the metro area and brought dangerous winter weather to other parts of Oregon and California.
The cars, buses and trucks were hampering efforts to plow snow and clear roadways. Many were left when they stalled in the bad weather.
(MORE: Full Forecast For California, Oregon Winter Weather)
“We’re out there now with plows and salt trucks. They’re on the roads,” state Department of Transportation spokesperson Don Hamilton told The Oregonian early Thursday morning.
“In those areas where there are stalls, we need to help move those so we can clear the roads."
Drivers posted to social media about being stranded on roadways for hours overnight across the metro area.
The storm has been named Winter Storm Piper by The Weather Channel. It's one of two winter storms dumping snow and ice across several states coast to coast. The other is Winter Storm Olive.
All or parts of more than 20 streets in Portland remained closed through the morning due to cars, downed trees or slippery conditions. Video from the city's Bureau of Transportation showed fresh plow crews heading out.
A state of emergency was declared in the area, and government offices and schools shut down.
More than 400 flights were canceled or delayed at Portland International Airport Wednesday and Thursday, according to online tracker FlightAware.com.
Roads in some areas of the Oregon Coast Range were also closed due to fallen trees, weighed down by ice.
About 15,000 power outages were being reported in Oregon Thursday morning, with more than 40,000 in California, according to PowerOutage.us.
The snowfall amount in Portland Thursday was the second highest for any single day there in records dating to the 1940s, according to weather.com senior meteorologist Jonathan Erdman.
The storm also brought the first blizzard warnings for mountain areas around Los Angeles in more than 30 years. And snow caused a pileup involving 20 vehicles in Yucaipa, California, in San Bernardino County overnight. Several drivers were hospitalized after the crash.
Impacts from the storm were also felt in Washington state, where heavy snow and high winds stopped search teams trying to reach the bodies of three climbers killed in an avalanche in the Cascade Mountains over the weekend, according to The Associated Press.
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