Sweet Home Police Department called in all of its off-duty officers to help handle emergencies related to Thursday’s wind storm.
“As we have since the beginning, the facility here is working beautifully,” Police Chief Bob Burford said. The building, opened last year, operated on a backup generator with a 300-gallon diesel tank.
Just under 24 hours with no power, the generator had used less than an eighth of a tank. The tank was supposed to offer a three-day supply, but it looks like it would last longer if needed.
Thursday night after the storm hit Sweet Home, a Townsend Oil truck brought gasoline to the department, and all of the department’s vehicles were filled. They were filled again Friday morning and were to be filled again Friday night.
Call volumes “were very high during the first three or four hours,” Chief Burford said. “Calls that we would ordinarily deem as emergencies because of the situation,” such as power lines or trees down on a house, were common and police response was often delayed by other emergencies.
Priority went to calls where injury or fire were an imminent threat. The others went on a waiting list.
The department’s entire fleet of vehicles was in use through most of the night, mainly trying to assist logging crews opening roads and deal with downed lines.
Police also searched residences where trees had fallen on homes to make sure no one was inside and injured.
Among emergencies, police blocked off an area around a gas leak on Meadowlark Lane at Strawberry Lane. Northwest Natural crews were still working on the leak Friday.
Two officers were assigned to building security throughout town, Chief Burford said. With the lights out, it was so dark, police were concerned about the potential for looting. Looting didn’t turn out to be a problem, but one or two individuals were throwing rocks through the windows of businesses. Four businesses were damaged, including the State Farm Insurance office, the 76 gas station, Figaro’s Pizza and John L. Scott Realty.
Police had a witness to the vandalism, but they were unable to locate the suspect, Chief Burford said. The biggest thing hampering police Thursday night were the five percent of the population that cause 95 percent of the problems.
They were out on foot, bicycles or driving that night, with nothing better to do than be out and about in the business area, Chief Burford said. Police warned people walking the streets that they would be contacted frequently by officers as long as they were out.
Housing for displaced residents was not a major issue, Chief Burford said. “This is a pretty self-sufficient community. We were prepared to find housing for those who needed it.”
In most cases, neighbors and relatives helped out those who needed places to stay.
Twin Oaks Care Center went all night without power, Chief Burford said, so police loaned the care home an emergency generator.
During the storm, Chief Burford said there may have been one death. Details were not available at that time, whether a woman had died and whether it was storm-related. A woman had been found lying near her vehicle not moving.
Chief Burford recalled two injuries Thursday night. One was to a woman hit by a door at Safeway. The door had been pulled open by the wind. Another was a foot injury, but Chief Burford did not know if it was storm-related.
Most other calls at the Sweet Home dispatch center were for fires related to the storm.
“It’s worse than the city,” Linn County Deputy Rick Burch said of rural areas around Sweet Home Friday afternoon. “They’re still finding blocked roads in the county.”
Everyone outside the city was without power and cleaning up after the storm. In the area around Sweet Home, Deputy Burch did not believe there were any reported injuries.