Thousands were left without power in Clark County last week while the snowy conditions also made driving a challenge.
According to Tyler Mode with the Battle Ground Weather Facebook group, both days of snowy conditions recorded 1.75 inches of snow with a storm total from Feb. 13 to Feb. 14 reaching 3.5 inches.
On Thursday, Feb. 13, Washington State Patrol Trooper Will Finn reported numerous collisions on Clark County roadways as temperatures hit a low of 25-degrees. A 22-vehicle pile up closed a portion of southbound Interstate- 5 near Exit 59 at the Cowlitz River in Toledo for hours on Feb. 13.
Dameon Pesanti, communications manager for Clark Public Utilities, said the wind event prior to snow fall on Wednesday, Feb. 12, into Feb. 13 knocked power out for thousands in Clark County. The cold temperatures also caused some water main breaks, as well, he said.
“Wednesday evening we saw scattered outages around the county due to falling branches and the occasional downed trees, things like that,” Pesanti said. “We have a very proactive and methodical vegetation management program to really make sure we have a good clear right of way for all of our power lines and utility poles. … But trees are still responsible for about half of the outages that we experience on the utility. And this time of year it is very common.”
Pesanti said the operations department had over 200 personnel ready to tackle the snowstorm. By 3 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 13, crews began replacing power poles and lines that were damaged in the storm.
After more snowfall came down on the region by Friday, Feb. 14, residents reported over 3 inches of snow across social media. On Feb. 14, power was restored to Clark County residents but an additional outage was reported in the morning affecting the Dollars Corner area.
