A Winter Storm Preparedness Wake-Up Call

How Portland's Winter Storm Left People Stranded

Last Wednesday (February 22nd), there was snow in the forecast. “There won’t be any, or very little, accumulation,” they said. “It’ll just turn to rain,” they said. 

And then about mid-day, it started snowing and it didn’t stop and, oh boy did it accumulate. It accumulated almost 11 inches of snow throughout the day making it Portland’s second largest snowfall in history and the most amount of snow in a day since 1943. This might seem like small beans to those of you who live with the snow every winter. But Portland does not live with the snow. If we’re “lucky” we get a couple of days of snow in January or February that usually make up a few inches. Enough to sled for a day and then it rains and gets washed out and we’re blessed with gray and rain for a few more months. And the anticipation of such snow events usually puts us in an overprepared tizzy buying up all the bread and milk and eggs from the grocery store. Workplaces and schools preemptively shut down or go remote. 

But for this historic snow, no one was prepared. Even as it started snowing midday, forecasters predicted a light dusting. By the time I went to pick Finch up from school after 3pm (thankfully within walking distance), there were several inches on the ground. Evening commuters, their workplaces, and the mass transit system were especially unprepared.

The local transit agency, Trimet, estimated that around 150 city buses got stuck in the snow. The roads and freeways were gridlocked and many people abandoned their vehicles. My neighbor, who works across town in Beaverton, said it took her 5 hours to get home–arriving home around 11:00pm. My husband, by chance, took the e-bike to work. He sent me pained texts through Siri: “Please make me some hot, hot, hot, hot chocolate, please” and “I can’t feel my face.” As a daily bike commuter, he’s always prepared for cold, wet weather. But this freezing cold, sideways blowing snow, was a whole other level of preparedness that he didn’t even know to think about that morning. It took him almost two hours to get home from his work at the hospital across town (usually takes him 40 minutes). But given my neighbor’s situation, perhaps he had it lucky because he chose to leave his pedal-powered (non-electric) bike at home which would have been a completely different story in the snow. He had colleagues who drove who ended up sleeping at the hospital overnight.

That is all to say, no one was prepared! They weren’t prepared for the weather, that’s for sure. That can be the fault of the forecasters. But so many people weren’t prepared to be stranded or freezing cold in any kind of winter storm. And while I don’t love the light fear mongering that happens in preparedness circles, here, they have a point. Always be prepared for any kind of event. This and Cory’s freezing cold ride home was a wake-up call. I’m glad he kept spamming me with texts because I knew he wasn’t freezing in a pile of snow on the side of the road. But the worry did occur to me.

What I realized, in this case, was how unprepared we are on the road. I haven’t put together a substantial car emergency preparedness kit, called “go kits” sometimes in the preparedness world. While Cory wasn’t in the car, I feel like we should’ve considered something for his bike, too. If getting stuck in five hours of traffic or even having to ditch your car altogether doesn’t show the need for such a kit, I don’t know what does. The challenge I face is I get so overwhelmed with the list of things to put in that kit. And then worrying about how big that kit is getting. And it is overwhelming. It’s what kept us from doing much with our at-home supplies kit. 

There are alternatives to accumulating everything on your own, of course. Google “go kit” or “emergency car kit” and you’ll get a whole slew of products made just for that purpose. This capitalism-meets-prepping list of products brings up a whole other set of dissonance for me because there’s an entire industry just for that purpose. But I have to say, they come in handy.

So in the wake of this winter storm, for the sake of efficiency and decrease of overwhelm, I’m likely going to start with a ready-made kit just to get me started and add from there. I’ll probably look to local company Cascadia Ready for that ready-made kit. I met the owner and founder, Marilyn Bishop, a few years ago for this CityLab story I wrote a few years ago and I believe strongly that their company’s focus is truly to help people be more prepared versus capitalize off of the fear. From there, I’m heading over to good ‘ol Consumer Reports  which, to me, is the most trusted source for such reviews. 

And also finally, this winter storm was a huge reminder that we need to be looking out for each other. These emergency preparedness kits are necessary, but they do not exist as a replacement for the help and support of the other people around you. I’ve heard a radio story about neighbors checking in on the houseless people near them that they know. I’ve seen neighbors shoveling others’ walkways. And I’m sure there are examples of stranded folks helping one another out (although I haven't heard specific media stories as such). 

The kit is great to have. The people and support networks and community aid networks are essential.