Oregon Coast Storm Roundup: Traffic, Winds, Power Outages

Published 11/19/2012

(Oregon Coast) – Huge winds, monster rain, even bigger waves and a few traffic nightmares punctuated this gargantuan storm along the Oregon coast Monday. Even when death occurred due to the storm. (Above: travel has been inturrupted between Cannon Beach and Seaside all day because of flooding).

At the Astoria-Megler Bridge on the Oregon/Washington border, the bridge has been closed all day due to a semi rollover. As of 5:30 p.m., crews have as yet to clear the mess, partially because all fuel from the truck needs to be emptied before it can be moved.

Also as of 5:30 p.m.:

Highway 101 just south of Seaside is still closed to most vehicles. ODOT has even advised people to not hit the roads on Highway 101 if possible and urged people to not drive to the coast today.

A crash at Seal Rock, south of Newport, is causing some delays at this hour.

High water is creating delays in Tillamook.

Early in the day, trees were downed on Highway 18 near Lincoln City, closing that highway for awhile. Power lines were also a danger there and at Highway 26.

Also, on Highway 26, a fire truck from Seaside had a tree fall on it, closing that highway for a time.

Rock slides and landslides affected Highway 101 around Nehalem and Garibaldi periodically during the day. 52-year-old Nathan Christensen of Seattle

The storm caused one fatality, however. 52-year-old Nathan Christensen of Seattle died around 7 a.m. when a tree fell over on his tent in a forest outside of Nehalem. The man was elk hunting with friends and they say he died instantly.

Gusts hit near 100 mph at Astoria and Newport, and many gusts were in the 80's up and down much of the coast. The wind tore off parts of the roof of the Izzy's Pizza in Newport – which had all of its roof torn off in a super storm back in the mid-90's.

In Cannon Beach, a tree fell on a home, essentially destroying it.

Some 14,000 people were without power along the Oregon coast as of 5:30 p.m.

Social media was filled with fascinating observations from all over the coast. In Manzanita, Rocky Intertidal CoCreative co-owner LeeAnn Neal noted a lot of outdoor furniture moving around by itself, equating to some of those horror movies where furniture gets shuffled around by angry spirits.

“Got a little Exorcist-style outdoor-furniture rearranging going on out there on the deck,” she said on Facebook.

Perhaps it was Ian Clayman, owner of Bay 839 restaurant in Newport, who summed it up best, however.

“In parts of the country they call this a super storm, tropical storm or a hurricane,” he said. “On the Oregon coast we call it Monday and go on with our day.”

Still, the sun came out for a while in Seaside. Seaside Aquarium's Tiffany Boothe snapped a stunning image of that bright and shining moment. See that photo below.

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