A wind storm blew across the Willamette Valley Thursday morning and again that night, with gusts of up 60 to 70 mph tearing tin roofs from barns, knocking over trees, breaking branches and knocking out power.
Sweet Home came through the storm relatively unscathed Thursday and then experienced a second storm of less intensity Sunday night.
Sustained winds were around 30 to 40 mph Thursday, National Weather Service Meteorologist Dan Keirns said. The winds swept across the whole area, and Keirns said he had reports of trees down east of Salem and tin roofs ripped off of structures along Highway 20.
The winds arrived early in the day with a warm front, he said. A cold front moved in behind it, bringing bands of rain showers and more wind gusts.
Early Saturday, Sweet Home had some snow, a little of which remained Sunday night. The service predicted up to 2 inches of rain in Sunday’s weather system.
Keirns predicted that the storm systems through the week, although not as strong.
Firefighters responded to several calls Thursday night, including two reported fires.
A power line was reported down on a house in the 1500 block of Eighth Ave., Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District Capt. Ken Weld said. A small electrical fire started, but firefighters contained it quickly with minimal damage.
The fire was attributed to the weather and downed line, which shorted and sparked where it entered the home, he said. Firefighters also heard reports of lines down off 50th Avenue.
They responded to a downed line and pole fire in Foster, and limbs crashed down onto a trailer at Foster Trailer Park.
Firefighters responded to a call that a tree had fallen on a power line Sunday night on Whiskey Butte Drive, but it had been cleaned up before they arrived.
City Maintenance Supt. Pat Wood said said power went out at his house and most of Sweet Home east of 18th at around 2 a.m. Friday, It was restored sometime around 8 a.m.
The Wastewater Treatment Plant also was out of power until about mid-morning, he said.
Wood started patrolling Sweet Home’s problem areas checking for flooding at about 2:30 a.m., he said. Those places have new culverts and appeared to have no issues with flooding.
“We were totally ahead of the game,”he said.
He did see a lot of fir boughs on the streets but not much more than that, he said. The biggest one he saw was about 20 feet long and 8 inches in diameter. He watched it break off a tree in front of his house at about 2:15 a.m.
Wood drove around for about an hour but found no big problems, he said. “I was just shocked that I didn’t find any.”
The storm did close a handful of roads throughout the county. Linn County Road Department reported that Valley View Drive was closed off by a fallen tree. It was open before Friday afternoon.
Boston Mill Drive and Morgan Drive near Lebanon were closed due to high water, and River Drive was closed for a downed power line.
North McCully Mountain Road near Scio had one lane open due to a slide, and Hungry Hill Drive and Densmore Road near Scio were closed due to high water.
Wirth Road in the Albany area was closed due to high water.
Scio and Halsey both had several roads with a “caution warning” due to high water.