From The Source

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I get ideas from many directions, so many ideas come from my own personal experiences but some of the stories are bits and pieces of what I have gleaned from hearing the tales of those that were actually there.

That is the case of telling the story of the storm back in February (the previous two posts) where the southern part of the state had gotten a lot more than us in the form of wind, snow and freezing temperatures.

I had gotten information for the story from local people, from those throughout the southern Willamette Valley and then seen first hand the damage in the forest while I was in Roseburg during the REALOregon session.

And now I have an actual picture of one of real Snowcats that had been transported down to the area to assist with the disaster. This Snowcat was loaded out near the Columbia River onto a trailer for the trip south. During the trip, the driver was notified of freeway closures right after he/she had passed through the area. He/she said it was tough negotiating through the stalled-out or slid-out vehicles all the way down to Eugene. Each time the truck and loaded trailer made it through another town, news of closure happened right behind and knew that there was no going back until the storm was well out of the area.

Once the Snowcat made it to Eugene, it was taken off the trailer and put into service towing diesel generators up to cell towers between Eugene and south of Cottage Grove. The cell towers are vital to communication since they are part of the 911 emergency system, towers have backup generators already at each cell tower site, but they run on propane and the system is only for temporary electric disruptions and not set up to run for days or weeks at a time. The towers were in danger of losing power. This Snowcat was able to tow diesel fueled generators up to the towers to take over for the overloaded and under-fueled propane backups.

Special thanks to Mr./Ms. Snowcat hauler for the awesome picture and for information about the adventure!