Snow in Portland Oregon
 

Has anyone here tried driving to or from Mt. Hood to Portland over the last few days?

It was tough enough just driving to and from my office this morning. Just too much snow on the roads.

My friend from Portland came up to Seattle Friday and has been stuck here since then.

Did get my answer. Guess it was easier driving Mt. Hood to Portland than it was driving around town because hwy 26 actually has and uses snowplows.

GEEZ- I have to drive up there to get my daughter tomorrow

What do you think Beachbum?
will I make it ?

Even Amtrak is not running
nor Greyhound

this is the pits!!!!

I presonally would not make that drive right now, and we are very used to driving in the mountains. We have so much snow here in Portland right now, and of course the mountains got much more than we did. We did not have power for 12 hours yesterday. I am glad to have the internet and tv for updates today! Will attempt to venture to the grocery store today. Not positive we will make it.

I haven't been on the freeways yet today, sunbum, but, provided you carry tire chains, and know how to install them, I think you'll be fine. The worst part is the ruts/tire tracks, which make changing lanes difficult. As far as I've seen there are still very few people on the roads. Good luck!

Bummer that you lost power, mms. Brrrr!! You have a fireplace?

My son came to Bend from Portland last night. He left Portland at 9 p.m. and got here at 1:30. He said the worst part was getting out of Portland. He was using chains just to drive around Portland. Had to take the chains off in Zigzag. Said he would have been here half an hour earlier if he had not had the chains on. (Of course he may not have been able to get out of Portland.) Happy travels and happy holidays to all. CJ

I was just about to post something asking how you Oregon folks were.

After our great vacation there in September, I still check out your beautiful state on webcams and was watching with interest all that snow!

The Columbia River Gorge webcam made it look like Siberia!!

Take care of yourselves up there.

Just talked to my nephew in Oregon. He flew into Portland last night. They had to wait on the tarmac for 30 minutes while the gate was plowed. He left for LaGrande, OR this morning. He was driving 35 mph on I-84. Will be a long ride home, but at least I-84 is now open.

My other nephew drove from Seattle to LaGrande yesterday. Had no trouble other than having to drive slow & careful.

We hope to drive from Sacramento to Bend on Dec. 26, but will have to wait and see how the weather is.

Well we made it to the grocery store today. Geez what a mess though! I am not sure what was worse, the roads or the grocery store. Seriously, even after having lived in the south and stocked up for hurricanes, that was nothing compared to the grocery store today.

Could not make it to Costco in Wilsonville, which is only 6 miles from home. Tualatin was bad enough.

I sort of have mixed feelings about being out of town for Portland's big snow storm. (I caught only the first 4-5 days before I luckily caught a plane last Thur.) On one hand, it's a historical event, and I wish I could be there taking pictures of everything. On the other hand, I think I'd be about stir crazy right now, with everything shut down. My friends who have contacted me from Portland all seem to be losing it from the snow!

I know you're a photographer, Andrew, so you probably are missing some great shots. But we all have cabin fever here. I traveled by bus into central Beaverton yesterday, and regret that I did. Oh, TriMet was great, but the roads are now slushy, and the sidewalks are very tough to navigate. I am grateful that I have heat, light, power, and food, and hoorah, the cable guy came yesterday, so now I have all these new digital channels to watch. It's darn inconvenient--I'm missing out on a family gathering--but at least I am safe and warm this holiday season, and that's a lot more than some people can claim.

My brother who lives in the gorge has been stuck for nearly a week. They can't get to their driveway even. So family from the valley were coming up to help dig them out.

We went to church yesterday afternoon, only 2 miles door to door, and it was quite the ride!

Sumbum, if you're out there, I'm wonder if/hoping your daughter made it, and you were able to pick her up.

I got back to Portland from Philly just fine - wow, I totally lucked out with my flights in and out. Not a single delay or issue. Just great luck in my travel days (and thanks again to Southwest).

I got home from the airport to my home in NE Portland just fine via public transit - two trains and a bus, but I never waited more than a few minutes to connect. By then the snow was starting to melt and MAX trains seemed to be running well.

I'm amazed that several days after the big snows, with the temperature slightly above freezing, that so many roads in Portland are still full of slushy snow. Many sidewalks are not shoveled. I had to carry my bags from the bus/train - too much snow to drag them on wheels. In the Portland neighborhoods, there are huge snow drifts on the curbs, making street parking difficult unless you are chained up or have 4WD. I almost got stuck once trying to park on the street in NW tonight. Then you have to walk through slushy snow on many unshoveled sidewalks just to get anywhere. People in other cities probably think we're wimps here, to be fretting over this stuff 5-6 days after the big accumulations!

Welcome home Andrew. I had reason to think of you today when I opened a Christmas/Holiday card from a friend. One of your photographs was the front cover; I'm guessing you know which one.

Hi beachbum! Cool that you saw one of my shots on a card. I sold a few holiday card pics this season. Was it this shot in B&W?

http://www.portlandbridges.com/00,5D...nd-oregon.html

No, it looked like you might have photoshopped a sepia-type filter on a wintry scene of downtown Broadway. Neat shot, as are some of those on your home page. Love those clouds!!

Happy Holidays!

Ah, I know which one now. (I didn't do the Sepia - they did.) That's actually an old picture shot in the Jan 1996 snow storm - which until recently I'd thought had been a unique opportunity for photos! Blown up a bit more, you can see the old Fox theater in the background, before they tore it down and put up the current Fox Tower. I was down there again at the beginning of the current series of storms but there wasn't quite enough snow (yet) to get the same scene, which would have been quite magical with a foot of snow...