At Least Six People Have Died in Portland Area From Winter Storm

Multnomah County officials say this weekend’s storm created the largest demand for emergency shelter Portland has ever seen during a weather event.

Van in snow, Jan. 14. (Michael Raines)
By Aaron Mesh

As the winter deep freeze that incapacitated Portland exits with a final flourish—a band of freezing rain—authorities announced Jan. 16 two more deaths in the cold, bringing the regional toll to six.

The two people, whose deaths the Multnomah County medical examiner suspects were from hypothermia, were found Monday in ZIP codes on the east side of the Willamette River. The county did not release any more information about the deaths.

Those deaths are the fifth and sixth directly tied to the “Arctic blast” of frigid wind that blew into Oregon on Saturday. Two people died Jan. 13 of what the medical examiner thinks was hypothermia. Two others were killed by falling trees—one in Lake Oswego, another when a tree slammed into a RV parked in East Portland and set it ablaze.

The number does not include two women killed in a Northeast Portland church fire early Sunday. That fire has not yet been formally linked to the storm, although fire investigators told The Oregonian that a generator was in use in the church gym. It also does not include a bizarre incident in a downtown Portland luxury apartment tower the same morning, when police officers shot and killed a man they said was firing a semi-automatic rifle into surrounding apartments. (That man was identified today as Matthew Holland, 31.)

County officials say this weekend’s winter storm, which carried a wind chill in the teens and left more than 150,000 households without power at one point, created the largest demand for emergency shelter Portland has ever seen during a weather event. More than 1,800 people sought shelter Monday night, the county said.

Tonight’s freezing rain is expected to turn the streets to ice rinks and could send more tree limbs toppling into power lines, further complicating a power-restoration effort by Portland General Electric and Pacific Power that remains incomplete.

The county says 12 shelters will be open overnight:

Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pedersen says the county is still seeking volunteers to staff shelters tonight. People wishing to volunteer can do so here.


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