Snowstorm in Portland

I saw the first flakes starting to fall Thursday, February 6, around 11:30AM–a short time before I was supposed to drive to Salem. The storm was coming in from the south; Albany was already covered in inches; I5 in a massive pile-up.

“It’s pure chaos,” Oregon State Police Lt. Steve Mitchell said as troopers struggled to reach trucks and cars that crashed along the freeway. “For all intents and purposes, it’s shut down between Albany and Salem.” I canceled my meetings for that afternoon and stayed home. The next day, Friday, a second storm hit; Saturday the third. Nearly 10 inches fell.

Sunday afternoon was the first I’d ventured outside since Thursday. Down the block from where we live, robins and a few cedar waxwings were swarming a crabapple tree laden with fruit. They were so intent on eating the fruits that they didn’t mind our getting close to take some photos if we stood still long enough.[Best_Wordpress_Gallery gallery_type=”thumbnails” theme_id=”1″ gallery_id=”1″ sort_by=”order” image_column_number=”5″ images_per_page=”30″ image_title=”undefined” image_enable_page=”1″ thumb_width=”180″ thumb_height=”180″ popup_width=”800″ popup_height=”500″ popup_effect=”none” popup_interval=”5″ popup_enable_filmstrip=”1″ popup_filmstrip_height=”70″ popup_enable_ctrl_btn=”1″ popup_enable_fullscreen=”1″ popup_enable_comment=”1″ popup_enable_facebook=”1″ popup_enable_twitter=”1″ popup_enable_google=”1″ watermark_type=”none” watermark_link=”0″]