PGE pledges $75K in assistance to Clackamas County nonprofits
CEO Maria Pope summarizes power company s recovery efforts following historic ice storm
Portland General Electric Chief Executive Officer Maria Pope told Clackamas County leaders Thursday that the county was far and away the hardest hit by the ice storm earlier this month, knocking out power to more than 144,000 residents.
In her 45-minute update to the Board of County Commissioners on Feb. 25, Pope said around 500 Clackamas County residents were still without power, and those cases are posing a lot of complex challenges to PGE crews who have come from as far as Montana and California to assist PGE crews in getting power restored. Commissioners also heard from PGE Vice President Larry Bekkedahl about the adverse factors that caused the unprecedented number of outages and how PGE is beginning to reimagine some of the ways it delivers services, as well as how we coexist with the natural environment.
Oregon lawmakers hear fire survivors personal stories and continued struggles
The purpose of the hearings is for legislators to learn more about the struggles people still face and determine what the state can do to help. Author: Christine Pitawanich Updated: 8:28 PM PST February 23, 2021
SALEM, Ore. People in fire-affected areas of Oregon gave lawmakers a glimpse into their lives now, almost six months after the fires in September.
Last week, people in Southern Oregon testified in front of the Legislative House Special Committee on Wildfire Recovery.
This week, people in other fire-affected areas like the Santiam Canyon, McKenzie River Valley, Portland metro area and coastal areas, shared their personal stories with Oregon lawmakers.
Clackamas County to require registration to speak at meetings February 23 2021
Move at suggestion of Tootie Smith follows multi-week inundation of calls for Commissioner Mark Shull to resign.
Clackamas County will begin requiring constituents seeking to provide public comment at Board of County Commissioners meetings to register at least two hours prior to the start of the meeting. The changes take effect next Thursday, March 4.
The move comes at the direction of County Chair Tootie Smith. Commissioners agreed to a registration process intended to provide more transparency and accountability for those joining virtually via the Zoom application. These changes follow weeks of calls for Commissioner Mark Shull to resign as well testimony in support of Shull which have taken up a significant portion of the public-comment period each week.
Stories of frustration and success as PGE struggles to get power back on for everyone
While some got electricity restored sooner than they expected, others couldn t understand why they were the only ones left in the dark in their neighborhood. Author: Tim Gordon Updated: 6:03 AM PST February 22, 2021
OREGON CITY, Ore. Damon Semmel and his wife have been on the phone with PGE a lot lately, hearing about transformers and circuits.
“It s hard to take with any kind of confidence when you ve been hearing this day after day after day,” Semmel said.
PGE said last Thursday its goal was to get the number of customers without power down from about 100,000 to about 15,000 by the end of Friday. The number of customers without power at 6 a.m. Monday was 21,491, as the company said it continued to come up against several challenges.