A sea of tree branches sits on top of a house for sale damaged by the storm. Owner Jean Peterson bought the house over a year ago and had remodeled during the summer.
Marcus Larson
News-Register

By the News-Register staff and The Associated Press

A severe wind and rain storm blew through Yamhill County Thursday afternoon, knocking down trees and power lines. It was one of a series of thunderstorms that cut a broad swath through Western and Central Oregon.

The first word came when the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm watch for several Oregon counties about 4 p.m.

By then, the skies had already darkened ominously. By 4:30, the storm had hit.

According to The Associated Press, the storms developed early in the afternoon and began moving north toward Portland, which was buffeted by powerful winds, torrents of rain and a rush-hour lightning show. Several cities were hit by hail, ranging to golf ball size.

One report indicated funnel clouds had touched down between Newberg and Dundee at the height of the storm, but the News-Register was unable to confirm that. The Weather Service issued a tornado warning shortly after 4, but it was limited to Linn County.

Fierce winds and torrential rains began pelting Yamhill County about 4:30 pm.

In McMinnville, the farmers market had to shut up shop hurriedly. Downtown residents, merchants and employees helped vendors take down their booths as the sky darkened and the wind began to blow.

In the Carlton area, several big trees came down, blocking roads, downing power lines, knocking out the City Park clock and heavily damaging a home at 347 Park St. while the owners were out.

Downed trees blocked Meadowlake Road just west of Carlton and Hendricks Road east of Carlton. Another downed tree, its limbs snarled in power lines, forced motorists traveling through town on Highway 47 to take turns using a single lane.

The storm led to the postponement of the Trask Middle School graduation in Yamhill. It was rescheduled for 7 p.m. Monday.

Downed trees and power lines also closed Highway 99W for about three hours at the dip just west of Dundee. Sgt. Tim Weaver, public information officer with the Newberg-Dundee Police Department, said traffic was backed up for miles on both sides of 99W.

A detour was established along Fifth Street and Full Quartz Landing Road. However, it wasn't up to handling the load at anything beyond a crawl.

Northbound traffic also backed up badly on Highway 18 at the point where it merges with Highway 99W at McDougal's Corner.
In addition, downed trees and lines blocked Highway 240 at Tangen Road, just north of Newberg, for a time. Traffic was routed onto North Valley Road.

Sgt. Russ Vandewettering of the Yamhill County Sheriff's Office said a leaning power pole at the weigh station on Highway 99W between Lafayette and Dundee added to the congestion in that area.

Meanwhile, at least two trees fell across Abbey Road, outside of Lafayette. Emergency crews got the blockage cleared about 6 p.m.

More than 50,000 Portland General Electric customers lost power, including about 2,400 in Yamhill County. As of 5 a.m. Friday, PGE said 6,700 remained without power, despite efforts extending through the night.

Locally, most customers had power again by 7:30 Thursday night. However, rural Carlton-area resident Joe Della Valle said the power didn't come back on at his place until shortly before noon Friday.

Della Valle was understanding, saying PGE had many outages to concern itself with. "You take what you can get these days," he said.

By 4:30 on Friday, PGE reported that the number of outages had been reduced to 1,600. Parts of Carlton, Dayton, Dundee and Yamhill remain affected, but many of the outages in the area affect only 1 or 2 customers each, according to the company.

In McMinnville, the wind blew so hard power lines slapped together, causing lights to flicker and sometimes go out entirely.

About 1,000 McMinnville Water & Light customers were without power at the height of the storm. In most cases, it was restored within an hour, according to Electric Distribution Superintendent Scott Rosenbalm.

Reporters Nicole Montesano, Yvette Saarinen, Paul Daquilante and Starla Pointer contributed to this report.