City News

PHOTOS: Fallen tree leaves thousands without power in West Salem

A fallen oak tree branch left about 2,400 customers without power Monday night in west Salem, with outages and road detours continuing into Tuesday for some as crews made repairs. 

Salem Electric Member Services Manager Jacob Knudsen said the outage, which occurred just after 10 p.m., was caused by a fallen branch that pulled down power lines and broke several poles. 

The area of Northwest Glen Creek Road off Northwest Wallace Drive was the initial area impacted with about 2,400 homes and businesses out of power. According to Knudsen, the company was able to reroute power to isolate the outage, decreasing the number of impacted homes and businesses to about 500 by 1 a.m.

By 6 a.m. Tuesday morning, 200 homes were still without power. 

Glen Creek Road remained closed for much of Tuesday. By 4:20 p.m., Salem Electric crews were clearing the road, allowing it to reopen, city spokesman Trevor Smith said.

Salem Electric’s website said as of 2:10 p.m. Tuesday, power was back on for all but 13 homes and businesses. A small section of Northwest Patterson Street needed additional repairs, and the utility anticipated restoring all power by Tuesday evening.

-Caitlyn May

A lineman from Salem Electric works to restore power to parts of West Salem blacked out when a large oak tree fell across power lines late on Monday, Aug. 8 (Ron Cooper/Salem Reporter)
High voltage power lines lay across a stop sign torn from the ground when power lines fell across the sign late on Monday, Aug. 8 in west Salem (Ron Cooper/Salem Reporter)
Motorists on Northwest Glen Creek Road detour around a closure early Tuesday, Aug. 9 after the street was closed overnight by downed power lines (Ron Cooper/Salem Reporter)
High voltage power lines sag over the ground near Northwest Glen Creek Road the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 9 after a large oak tree fell across power lines, dragging down poles and lines and causing an overnight power outage for thousands of West Salem residents (Ron Cooper/Salem Reporter)

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Photographer Ron Cooper and his wife Penny moved to Salem in 1969 to take a job as photographer at the Oregon Statesman (later the Statesman Journal). Their three children, Monica, Kimberly, and Christopher, attended and graduated from Salem public schools. Cooper retired from the Statesman Journal in 2001 but, has continued his passion for photography in many ways, including as a photographer for the Salem Reporter.