Power outage hits downtown Salem following brief thunderstorm, lightning and hail
Last updated 9:20 a.m. Friday
Power has been fully restored in the downtown Salem area as of Friday morning.
Original story
Power is out in most of downtown Salem after a short-lived thunderstorm brought lightning and hail to the area, backing up traffic as drivers navigate without traffic signals.
The outage happened just after 12 p.m. Thursday and is affecting around 100 customers in the area, according to Portland General Electric’s outage map. The outage initially affected over 200 customers.
Power is estimated to be restored by 8 p.m. Thursday.
Lightning caused an outage near South River Road, affecting almost 60 customers, according to the PGE map.
Streetlights, restaurants and government buildings in downtown are currently without power as a thick layer of hail covers streets and sidewalks, potentially making driving and walking more dangerous.
Traffic signals from Northeast Liberty Street east to Northeast Summer Street appeared out around 12:30 p.m., leaving most downtown intersections as four-way stops.
Salem Reporter staff saw a large lightning strike just south of downtown about one minute before power went out. One Reddit user posted to the site that a lightning strike hit South River Road around the same time.
The National Weather Service forecasted a slight chance of thunderstorms throughout Thursday afternoon and evening.
This story will be updated as information becomes available.
Contact reporter Madeleine Moore: [email protected].
A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE.
Madeleine Moore came to Salem after graduating from the University of Oregon in June 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She covers addiction and recovery, transportation and infrastructure.
