Page 12
July 3, 2019
photo by D anny p eterson /t he p ortlanD o bserver
Tree cutting crews clean up the damage after a rare tornado toppled a tree across the back of a parked van in the Vernon-Alberta neighborhood of northeast Portland
early Monday night. Several homes were also damaged. But amazingly, no injuries were reported.
Tornado Hit
C ontinueD from f ront
5010 NE 9th Ave
Portland, Or 97211
Phone: 503 284-2989
We specialize in a variety of cuts for men and
women, hot towel razor shaves, braiding, hair
extension, Shampoo, blow dryer and Platinum fade.
Call Today or Walk in !!!
“It’s freaky. It’s crazy,” added
Courtney Ferguson, the neighbor-
hood mail-carrier for US Postal
Service, who also reported seeing
hail in the Hollywood District at
the time.
Another woman, who lives just
one block from the double felled
trees, said she remembered the
wind blowing unusually loud that
evening.
“I thought of a tornado, and
I’d never been through a tornado,
but that’s sort of what it sounded
like,” Sarah Meacham, 48, said.
Wendy Katila was finishing up
dinner at Grain and Gristle, near
the corner of Prescott and 16th
Avenue, when it struck.
“We thought…there was some
sort of major car accident or that
kind of thing and were complete-
ly flabbergasted to see these trees
all over this neighborhood down,”
she said. “My heart goes out to
these people because…not only
are these trees obviously going to
go, they’re magnificent trees, but
obviously they have damage to
their house.”
The National Weather Ser-
vice used a combination of re-
ports from eye witnesses and
Doppler radar to determine the
path and strength of the ex-
treme winds.
The tornado was the fifth on re-
cord within Portland city limits in
the history of record keeping.
National Weather Service Me-
teorologist Matthew Cullen told
the Portland Observer another
EF-0 tornado occurred in October
on the north side of town, which
contacted the ground for just a
minute or two and caused mostly
minor damage in an industrial area
and some felled trees.
An EF-3 tornado in April
1972 was the only other torna-
do in Portland before that, and
it caused great harm in Vancou-
ver on the same day, killing six
and causing millions in damage.
It had formed in Portland and
crossed the Columbia River into
Washington.
There were also tornados in
February of 1904 and July of
1907, whose existence was un-
covered through local research,
Cullen said.
He added that tornados, though
rare, are one of many weather
hazards people should be cautious
about in the Pacific Northwest.
“Tornados, while they don’t
occur every year necessarily, in
town, they can occur and people
should always remain prepared
for that possibility when they see
strong showers or thunderstorms
and review their safety plan for
their home and for their work-
place,” Cullen said.