Winter Storm Caly began to crank up in the Northwest on Thursday, expected to dump feet of snow in the higher elevations. But in the more highly populated areas, the wintry menace is likely to cause travel problems, and as we've seen already, air travel in cities like Portland and Seattle could be slowed into Friday morning.
According to FlightAware, at least 50 flights into and out of Portland International Airport were canceled Thursday, and several more flights were called off at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Even before the snow began to accumulate, damaging winds brought down trees and power lines.
"Conditions will deteriorate from south to north across the Pacific Northwest into Thursday night, with snow and some pockets of freezing rain," said weather.com meteorologist Chris Dolce. "Seattle and Portland could see a few inches of snow accumulation before the precipitation changes to rain in most areas by Friday morning. The combination of snow and ice will lead to poor travel conditions while the wintry precipitation is ongoing."
Oregon
One person was killed Thursday morning in a car crash that was blamed on weather conditions made worse by Caly.
A Benton County Sheriff's Office spokesperson told the Corvallis Gazette-Times that a driver was killed in a two-car crash just after 8 a.m. Thursday morning on Highway 99W near Adair Village. The other car's driver was not injured, the report added.
"It was weather related," Detective Sergeant David Peterson told the Gazette-Times. "It was because of the icy conditions."
As winds gusted to 47 mph at the Portland airport, the National Weather Service relayed multiple reports of tree and power line damage in the metro area Thursday morning.
According to the Oregonian, all schools in the Portland metro area have canceled classes Friday due to Caly. The cancellation included all districts in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties, the report added. Clatsop and Tillamook counties canceled classes Thursday, and most state offices were closed in the Portland metro area, the Associated Press reported.
"This sort of unanimity in school closure decisions is extremely rare, given variations in geography, micro-climates and risk-aversion," said the Oregonian.
Farther south, freezing rain was reported Thursday morning in Eugene. Traffic maps in the area showed roads were mostly incident-free.
Washington
In the southern Washington town of Vancouver, a woman sustained minor injuries Thursday morning when strong winds brought a tree down onto her home, briefly trapping her. According to the Columbian, Lisa El-Hoot was sleeping when the tree fell at about 6:20 a.m. Thursday, and her husband and three teenage children worked to free her, the report added.
"I heard a loud bang ... my sister came down and screamed 'mom's in trouble,'" Abdul El-Hoot, Lisa's son, told the Columbian. "We sprinted down the room and saw that a tree was on mom and we were just trying to get her out."
In nearby Camas, a second person was injured by a falling tree Thursday morning, suffering minor injuries, according to a separate Columbian report.
With accumulating snow expected to arrive in the Seattle area Thursday night, authorities were asking residents to stay in once the snow starts and keep the roads clear.
"Get home, get to wherever you are going to go and plan on spending time on traffic," Washington State Trooper Rick Johnson told MyNorthwest.com. "But what we don’t want to see happen is snowmageddon, where people are abandoning their cars on the freeway because it hit so fast and hard people didn’t get out of the city and get home."
KCPQ-TV reported numerous western Washington school districts were dismissing students early Thursday so they could get home before Caly arrived.
Transportation officials urged drivers to examine their cars for winter preparedness and put an emergency kit in their vehicles before the storm arrives, the Seattle Times reported.
According to a separate MyNorthwest.com report, more than two dozen flights were canceled Thursday morning at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
More than 3,000 Puget Sound Energy customers were without power in western Washington Thursday afternoon.
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