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<\/a><\/p>\nIt all started simple enough mid-last week: Snow had been coming on\/off over the end of last week.\u00a0 It would stick and make things slick as it froze up and turned to ice.\u00a0 When you don’t use salt and have only half a dozen plow trucks, the roads really do get slick when they aren’t touched (see the previous post on yakkity-driving of Portland).\u00a0 As of today, the streets around my house haven’t been plowed once since this all started a week ago.<\/p>\n But starting on Friday, it got going in a serious way.\u00a0 It’s been snowing almost solid for 2 days now and the winds have been bitter and hard.\u00a0 I ventured out during one break and now it looks like this: That’s about a foot or better of unplowed snow.\u00a0 Here’s my neighbor’s mini – yep there’s a car in there somewhere: I-84 closes in the Columbia gorge for days<\/u> Admiral Ackbar<\/a> says: “We’re trapped!”<\/u> All the highways west to the coast range are closed as is the major east route of I84.\u00a0 All trains going north to Seattle or south to Cali are canceled, Greyhound has been only sporadically getting people in\/out.\u00a0 Salem to the south is having an ice storm right now that should just about shut I5 down in that area.\u00a0 In other words folks – we aren’t going anywhere: But, I stocked up on groceries a few days ago and living downtown I can walk or take a few of the remaining buses around if needed.\u00a0 So, I sit at home with the news on and work at home.\u00a0 Thank goodness I can write code anywhere. Things are looking up though – it appears that temps will increase, snowing has mostly passed, and today doesn’t look too bad.\u00a0 Maybe I’ll go out for another walk…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In rare Oregon fashion, we have been getting snow in the city.\u00a0 And in even rarer fashion, it’s been sticking – and how.\u00a0 Right now there is a mandatory chain or 4WD+studded tires restriction on all roads.\u00a0 My car can’t be fitted with chains, but it wouldn’t matter anyway – cars are buried in place as there has been no snowplows down my street since this started over a week ago.\u00a0 In fact, as I type this, there are people…<\/p>\n
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\nBut this is revealing, here’s how the last *two* days of snow have piled up.\u00a0 It snowed for about 36 hours very hard, then we had about an hour or so of freezing rain, a break, then about 12 more hours of snow.\u00a0 When digging through a car, it looks like this.\u00a0 That’s whats on everything right now (including the streets)
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\nThe only eastern road out of Portland is closed indefinitely – for at least a few days.\u00a0 Right now, I-84 out in the gorge was closed after 50mph winds and 1-2 feet of snow fell in just about 24 hours.\u00a0 Video of what it looked like even before it closed is here<\/a> (Troutdale is at the exit of the gorge – not even in the actual gorge itself).\u00a0 Visibility was below 10 feet and there were semi’s jackknifed and cars that simply got buried in the snow *as they were driving* as the winds moved around feet of snow at a time.\u00a0 The TV crews sat at this gas station right at the entrance of the gorge and interviewed semi-shell-shocked folks as the cops and rescue folks pulled them out of the gorge – leaving cars\/etc behind.\u00a0 Right now, 24 hours later, the storm is still blowing 60mph winds and even the road crews aren’t going in.<\/p>\n
\nRight now the Portland airport looks like this – and it’s not too bad today:<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nNeedless to say, very few, if any flights have gotten out the last two days.\u00a0 Folks that were trapped there 2 days ago are just now getting scheduled for flight after Christmas day. I put my prospects of getting home for Christmas at slightly less than 50\/50.<\/p>\n
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