Chris Dolce and Jan Wesner Childs
Rescuers in Oregon were searching through mud as deep as 10 feet Wednesday after a landslide east of Portland, looking for a person who was believed to have been swept away by the debris flow.
The landslide was triggered by an overnight wind and rain storm made worse by recent heavy rainfall. The storm left more than 600,000 homes and businesses without power, knocked down trees and shut down highways across Oregon and Washington.
At least one death is being blamed on the storm. Spokane Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer said a woman died after a tree fell on her car, the Spokesman-Review reported.
In a separate incident in Spokane, a woman was rescued after being trapped in her home by a falling tree. Fire officials said she was transported to an area hospital with chest injuries.
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In Oregon, first responders continued to search late Wednesday afternon for the person missing after a landslide near Dodson, about 60 miles east of Portland. The Multnomah County Sheriff's office said the mud was up to 10 feet deep in some areas.
"It’s believed the vehicle they were driving in was swept away by the debris flow," the sheriff's office posted on Twitter Wednesday morning. "Firefighters were not able to locate any heat sources using thermal-imaging cameras. It remains too dangerous for physical search."
The driver was identified as 50-year-old Jennifer Camus Moore, 50, from the nearby community of Warrendale.
Photos and video from the sheriff's office showed mud and debris covering a roadway and flowing over the eastbound lanes of Interstate 84, which remained closed.
Earlier, residents in Dodson had been urged to evacuate and a flash flood warning was issued for the area.
"Active landslides are making it difficult for responders to safely access (the) community," the sheriff's office tweeted.
The Red Cross was providing rooms for evacuees at a nearby hotel.
The National Weather Service in Portland said several rivers were at or above flood stage.
One resident of Puyallup, Washington, got a rude awakening when a tree fell into his home.
"Sound asleep, about midnight heard two big loud sounds," James Miller told KOMO NewsRadio. "It hit my neighbor's house first, then this house - then there was a 6-inch branch laying next to my head. "
Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses were without electricity. Washington had more than 334,000 outages and Oregon reported more than 51,000 customers without power as of about 3 p.m. PST, according to poweroutage.us. A large number of the outages were along the Interstate 5 corridor in Washington, including in the Seattle and Tacoma metro areas.
The two states combined had more than 600,000 power outages early Wednesday morning.
More than 55,000 outages were reported in Idaho and about 33,000 in Montana as the storm moved east.
Besides I-84, dozens of roads in Oregon and Washington were closed due to downed trees or power lines as well as flooding and debris.
The Deception Pass Bridge in Oak Harbor, Washington, was closed after a semi truck tipped over in high winds.
"I just passed the middle of the bridge and a gust of ... I don't know how bad ... just picked up my trailer and my truck and just pushed it against the guard rail," Jeff Myles, the truck driver, told KOMO NewsRadio. "I slammed on my brakes and I just laid over the guard rail. It tilted about 3 feet each way."
The cab was leaning over the edge as Myles scrambled to get out.
"I could look down at the water (out my window), so I wasn't going to open THAT door," he said.
The Washington State Department of Transportation said a downed tree was also complicating efforts to reopen the road.
The DOT advised drivers to be on alert for hazardous conditions.
"If you must travel today, please be very cautious. Watch for debris and do not go around road closed signs," the agency posted on Twitter. "Stay alert for road workers. They are everywhere trying to clear incidents as quickly as they safely can. And be please be patient and safe."
A tree falling on a home in Tacoma prompted a rescue after the occupant became trapped, according to Tacoma Fire. The occupant was successfully rescued.
Numerous wind gusts over 40 to 50 mph were clocked in western Washington in the early morning hours of Wednesday.
Saturated soil conditions from multiple recent rounds of soaking rain across the region likely worsened the impact from strong winds by destabilizing trees. Seattle picked up 7.45 inches of rain Jan. 1-12, which is nearly two inches more than its average precipitation for all of January.
The most recent soaking was fed by an atmospheric river late Monday into early Wednesday.
Spokane Public Schools, the Central Valley School District, Cheney School District, Medical Lake School District, Eastern Washington Universitiy and North Idaho College all canceled in person and virtual classes Wednesday, according to the Spokesman Review.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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