High winds and heavy rain swept through the Philomath area overnight Tuesday, downing trees and power lines and even closing a school.
Highway 34 was closed Wednesday morning near its intersection with Highway 20 because of a large tree that had fallen across the roadway. Pacific Power reported an outage in the early morning hours in that vicinity.
The Philomath School District issued an alert just after 7:30 a.m. that Blodgett Elementary School would be closed for the day because of a power outage. All other schools in the district were opening on time, although the superintendent reported that some bus routes may be combined.
“Please be patient with our buses as we would rather be safe and a little late than careless,” Superintendent Susan Halliday wrote to parents in an email.
Consumer Power Inc. was reporting several power outages in areas just outside of Philomath, most of those to the west and south of town.
Philomath Fire and Rescue responded to downed wires at 6:30 a.m. at Decker Road and Neuman Road. Crews also responded just before 8 a.m. to College Street between Seventh and Eighth streets.