911 Center power restored at 9:00 a.m. today
Deschutes County Oregon -- 2/15/2011 --
Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office
63333 Highway 20 West
Bend, Oregon 97701
(541) 388-6655
Late in the evening of February 14th and the early hours of February 15th, Deschutes County received several inches of snow. Due to the warm temperatures, this snow was heavy causing downed power lines, trees and phone lines. Many of the trees fell onto the power lines causing wide-spread power loss in Deschutes County.
Deschutes County 911 Center lost power and phones at approximately 7:45 a.m. on February 15. An emergency operations center was setup in the Deschutes County 911 Center to operate as an emergency dispatch center, as well as diverting 911 calls to the Oregon State Police in Medford, Oregon. The Oregon State Police assisted Deschutes County by communicating via cell phones back to the Deschutes County 911 Center where emergency calls could be dispatched to emergency personnel by portable radios units.
The emergency operations center in the Deschutes County 911 Center was staffed by 911 personnel, Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office emergency management personnel, as well as representatives from the City of Bend Police Department, the City of Redmond Police Department, Deschutes County Road Department and the City of Redmond Public Works.
In addition, the City of Bend Police Department set up an additional emergency operations center to deal with City of Bend issues as it related to down power lines, trees and phone lines. That emergency operations center was staffed by Bend Fire and Rescue, City of Bend Police and City of Bend Public Works.
At approximately 9:00 a.m. power and phones were restored to the Deschutes County 911 Center and they were able to resume normal operations at that time and the 911 emergency operations center was able to dismantle operations.
As of this writing, several parts of Deschutes County remain without power and approximately 10,000 homes remain without power as a result of this snow storm. We have been in contact with Central Electric Coop and Pacific Power who tell us all available crews are working on the widespread power outages. They said they have called in crews from outside the area to assist in Central Oregon. Both power companies tell us they hope to have power restored by nightfall. However, there may be areas that will be without power into the night.
We have been in contact with the Oregon Mountain River Chapter American Red Cross regarding the potential for emergency warming shelters in the unlikely event of power not being restored and weather conditions worsen.
We encourage everyone to check on your neighbors and the elderly. We ask citizens to be well prepared and self-contained for such events as we have experienced over the last 24 hours.
All agencies in Deschutes County, as it relates to emergency response, fire, police and other public works entities are operational.
Please do not call 911 unless it is an actual emergency.
If you have concerns, please call the Deschutes County non-emergency number of
(541) 693-6911.
