Freak Snowstorm in S. Willamette Valley Yesterday All the forecasts said rain, and when I got up at 5:00 there was 4" of snow on the ground.→[More:]

I figured that school would be closed, but I would have to report anyway, so I went to the gym and played volleyball as usual, but one of the guys pulled up the district website on his iPhone and it indicated that my group was not to show up, so I played longer.

Got home, after seeing EVERY flowering plum tree on my route either down or broken, and before going into the house, I was trying to get some snow off of some collapsing shrubs, camellias and rhodys, when I heard a CRACK in the back yard. First thing I saw was the electrical mast, raingutter, fascia, and downspout down, and I first thought that they had been overloaded by the snow, but then I looked over and saw that a branch from one of my huge cedar trees had come down onto the electrical line and brought all this stuff down.

Ran into the house, a bit freaked, and for some reason the power was still on. (But in no way a safe situation with the innards of the meter exposed to the weather, possible damaged wires, etc.)

After calming down a bit (I could have been under a branch, or a whole tree could have come down and killed me) I remembered I had my property insurance guy's number in my cellphone and I figured that I may as well get in line (there is a LOT of damage here) and he said to call the claim line, which is up in McMinnville, so I did, and they did not have ANY snow up there and were surprised to be getting all these calls from down the valley.

In my job, I am associated on some projects with electrical contractors, in an indirect way, so called one. He came right out, assessed the damage, and said that my local utility has to do the disconnect and reconnect and it could be days, but he said that he would call them and try to get permission to do the whole job, including reconnecting, but he said don't hold your breath. But two hours later, he called and said they'd gotten the permission, and someone would be right over.

A guy shows up, and it is about a 2 hour job and it was miserable by that time. . freezing sleet on top of all the hardening snow. And for most of it one could not wear gloves, but he, and later, the owner of the company (who had showed up to assess) got it done, with a bit of my help (lifting, holding stuff in place, etc.) and they switched it on and it worked.

So I am pretty amazed and feel lucky in that there are thousands of people around here without electricity today, but we are warm and snug and dry in our house.

Now, just need to get the gutter and fascia work done and I will tighten the phone/internet line (the other small line in the pics) which also never quit working.

Eugene ended up with 7.5 inches of snow yesterday!