A major ice storm knocked out electricity for more than 730,000 homes in Oregon some for nearly a week.
A resident poses by a large ice-covered tree on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021, in Portland, Ore., after a weekend winter storm toppled it. (Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian via AP)
PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) The frigid weather wreaking havoc in Texas also caused cold chaos in the Pacific Northwest, where a historic ice storm knocked out substations, leaving hundreds of thousands of homes unheated and with fridges of ruined food.
Frigid cold, pushed south from an unusual warming event over the arctic, arrived in Oregon last week, dumping snow and ice from Portland south through the normally temperate Willamette Valley to Salem and Eugene.