Brutally cold temperatures and dangerous wind chills stayed put across much of the U.S. Monday, leaving thousands of customers without power.
About 110,000 U.S. homes and businesses were without power late Monday, the bulk of them in Oregon after widespread outages that started Saturday. Portland General Electric warned that strong winds forecast for Monday and threat of an ice storm Tuesday could delay restoration efforts.
On Tuesday, more than 52,000 customers were still without power in Oregon, according to poweroutage.us. Portland General Electric (PGE) said its crews worked through the night and continued full-scale efforts to restore power following extreme damage from the winter storm that began Saturday. More than 1,400 PGE personnel, including crews and support staff, and a growing number of mutual assistance crews from across the state as well as California, Idaho and Washington, were working Monday to fix downed lines and damaged poles, substations and transmission equipment.
The extent of the damage crews encountered included nearly 850 downed distribution power lines, lines wrapped around fallen limbs, transformer and substation damage, as well as trees that had toppled equipment. At peak on Saturday, more than 160,000 customers were without power.
With the potential for record low temperatures in Texas, the state’s electrical grid operator asked consumers to conserve energy. About 25,000 Texas customers were without power Tuesday, according to poweroutage.us.
Louisana experienced outages as well, with more than 21,000 customers still without power on Tuesday, according to poweroutage.us.
About 150 million Americans were under a windchill warning or advisory for dangerous cold and wind on Monday, said Zack Taylor, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland, as an Arctic air mass spilled south and eastward across the U.S.
Sunday morning saw temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 6.7 degrees Celsius) to minus 40 F (minus 40 C) in northern and northeast Montana. Saco, Montana, dropped to minus 51 F (minus 26 C). Subzero lows reached as far south as Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and parts of Indiana, Taylor said.
Freeze warnings were issued by the National Weather Service across the Deep South. Mississippi forecasters warned of a “long duration freeze” that would last in some locations until Thursday.
This article includes reporting from the Associated Press.
