Officials in Oregon have declared a state of emergency following a winter storm that has left tens of thousands of residents without power.
Residents have been warned to stay indoors and off the roads, with two deaths reported in separate incidents after trees fell on a home in Lake Oswego and an RV in southeast Portland.
As Oregonians cope with the disruption, one message began spreading, purportedly from energy company Portland General Electric (PGE), saying power would not be restored for more than a week, pending delivery of emergency equipment from Texas.
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The Claim
A post on X by user @anita1956, posted on January 15, 2024, included what appeared to be an update from Portland General Electric, which said “PGE UPDATE: PGE advised if your power is not restored this evening by 8:00pm PST, it is highly likely that power will not be restored until by NEXT Monday. They are shipping emergency transformers from Texas and expect that to be a TEN DAY process.”
User anita1956 added: “In the most epic irony the message my sister received tonight from PGE as her power has been out due to recent storms in Portland Oregon.”
The Facts
More than 100,000 Oregon residents were without power as of Sunday night, according to PowerOutage.us, which collates live power outage data from U.S. residents who report to its service.
The most severe outages have been reported in the counties of Washington, Lincoln, Benton, Linn, Lane, Clackamas, and Multnomah, the latter of which is home to Portland. Several cities declared emergencies.
According to PGE’s website, nearly 70,000 customers were affected on early Monday morning with 3,130 active outages reported.
While outages are still being repaired, a message purported to be from PGE saying fixes are not expected until next Monday is bogus.
On Sunday evening, PGE said on X: “We are aware of false information regarding estimated restoration times being spread on social channels and Ring Community posts.
“This includes mention of shipping emergency transformers from Texas among other false rumors.”
PGE did not state when repairs would be complete. A spokesperson told Newsweek that while it had 1,100 personnel working to restore power and repair critical equipment, “given the extent of damage and high number of outage events, restoration efforts will continue into the week.”
“This weekend’s weather brought subfreezing temperatures, sustained strong and gusty winds and a mix of wet and freezing precipitation that caused damage and outages throughout PGE’s entire service area,” a statement read.
“Many of the outages we’re seeing are due to tree limbs on lines or even trees falling into power lines, taking down over 900 distribution power lines.
“PGE is seeing different conditions—and different challenges—that are impacting restoration efforts. In some areas downed trees are preventing access to assess wires until fallen trees and limb debris can be removed. In other areas, significant snow impeded access and assessment.”
The Ruling
False.
The supposed update from PGE saying that repairs will take until next Monday is fake. The company addressed the claims directly on social media.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.