Oregon
Eugene, Lane County winter weather to continue with cold ahead of more freezing rain
As Eugene and the rest of Willamette Valley attempt to dig out from a long weekend of snow and ice and frigid temperatures, weather forecasts were predicting a much-needed dose of clear sky for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
On the other hand, temperatures were expected to barely reach above freezing and residents were already bracing themselves for what could be another round of freezing rain on the horizon.
With the rough weather still taking its toll on the region, here are the latest updates from Eugene and the surrounding region:
The weather is expected to be cold and dry through early Tuesday when a low-pressure system from the southwest is forecast to bring freezing rain into Wednesday.
High temperatures are anticipated to return to the upper 40s or low 50s on Wednesday, with rain in the Willamette Valley and snow in the Cascades, for the rest of the week.
A total of 0.2 to 0.3 inches of ice is forecast Tuesday in the central and southern Willamette Valley. The ice is expected to begin in the morning and last into the evening. It’s less than Saturday’s ice totals that reached a half-inch in some places, but enough to have widespread impact.
“We’ll definitely have some possibility of power outages, tree damage and slippery roads,” said Jacob Hall with the National Weather Service in Portland. “The good news is that we’re not forecasting strong winds.”
Late Sunday, tens of thousands of Oregonians in the northwestern part of the state were without power and a multitude of highways and roads were closed, due to fallen trees and power lines.
Wind and snow and ice downed trees and power lines across northwestern Oregon over the weekend, knocking out power and prompting the closure of numerous roads.
Portland General Electric said tree limbs and debris brought down more than 816 of its distribution power lines and damaged multiple transmission lines.
“Given the extent of the damage and the high level of outage events, restoration efforts will continue into the week and customers are encouraged to plan accordingly,” PGE said in a statement.
- Lane Transit District: Bus services are suspended until further notice.
- Lane Community College: Closed until further notice. The men’s and women’s basketball games against Chemeketa Community College have been postponed.
- City of Eugene Parks: Immediate closure, caution advised near trees.
- Eugene Airport: Numerous flight cancellations and delays.
- University of Oregon Campus: Closing at 8 p.m. Saturday, reopening at 10 a.m. Monday. The Women’s Basketball game will be played but will be closed to the public.
- Willamalane Parks: Closed until further notice.
- PeaceHealth: All specialty clinics, walk-in clinics, and urgent care will be closed tomorrow. Most elective surgeries will be rescheduled. Other hospital operations will continue.
- Cascade Health: closed today and tomorrow except for the Pete Moore Hospice House.
- Willamette Valley Cancer Institute and Research Ctr.: Closed Monday.
- Slocum Orthopedics: Closed today and tomorrow.
- MLK Jr. Marches: Both the Martin Luther King Jr. Day march planned in Eugene and the one planned in Springfield are canceled.
- Deerhorn Road: Closed west of Booth Kelly Road due to falling trees and downed power lines.
- McKenzie View Drive: Closed due to falling trees.
- OR-126: Closed from Poodle Creek Road, Cheshire to Indian Creek Road, Swisshome due to hazardous trees or vegetation.
- OR-36: Closed from Poodle Creek Road, Cheshire to Indian Creek Road, Swisshome due to hazardous trees or vegetation.
- OR-99: Closed from E Saginaw Road to Lynx Hollow Road due to hazardous trees or vegetation.
- Marcola Road: closed from Bowman Road to County Line Road due to fallen trees.
- Territorial Highway: closed south of milepost 42 due to fallen trees.
- While not closed, state officials have warned of multiple crashes due to icy conditions on I-5 from miles 167-172 (Cottage Grove area)
The Egan Warming Centers will be open tonight and tomorrow night and they will remain open until 11 a.m. tomorrow morning instead of the usual 8 a.m. All sites are accessible to people with disabilities and to pets.
Egan Warming Center locations are:
- Springfield Memorial Building
- 765 A St, Springfield
- Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
- Transportation Hub at First Christian Church
- 1166 Oak Street, Eugene
- Shuttles will run from 6 p.m. to midnight
- Trinity United Methodist Church
- 440 Maxwell Road, Eugene
- Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
- South Hills at the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection
- 3925 Hilyard St, Eugene
- Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
- Wheeler Pavilion at Lane Events Center
- 796 W 13th Ave, Eugene
- Doors open at 10 p.m., a late opening
The Egan program is also seeking donations of gloves and blankets. It is looking for about 200 blankets and as many gloves as people can donate. People willing to travel are asked to bring donations to 888 Garfield Street in Eugene.
Watch the ice storm arrive in Eugene
A time-lapse of from Friday, Jan. 12, 2024 afternoon until Saturday morning as a layer of snow and ice coat Eugene’s College Hill Neighborhood.
The Oregon Department of Emergency Management activated the State Emergency Coordination Center for state agencies and nonprofit partners to share life safety resources, including activating 211 to support warming shelters in several counties.
“If you or someone you know needs a place to stay warm, call 211 or visit 211info.org to find open warming centers in your area; 211 also offer and coordinate transport services to and from warming centers,” the agency said.
Emergency Management encouraged people to stay home, stay informed, have an emergency plan and stock an emergency kit.
Oregonians can sign up for local emergency alerts at oralert.gov If you have moved, you should update your information.
The agency said a basic emergency supply kit in case the power goes out includes the following items:
- Enough water for one gallon per person per day for several days, for drinking and sanitation.
- Several days’ supply of non-perishable, easy-to-eat food such as peanut butter, protein and granola bars, jerky, nuts, fruit, pretzels, crackers, beans and rice.
- A manual can opener.
- A battery-powered or hand crank radio or a weather radio.
- A flashlight with extra batteries.
- A first-aid kit.
- Sleeping bags or warm blankets.
NW Natural on Saturday evening asked customers to conserve gas during the storm “by lowering thermostats as much as you can comfortably and safely manage,” minimizing hot water usage and turning off non-essential appliances, to help prevent strain on utility systems.
“We are seeing increased usage by utility customers across our region due to frigid temperatures, which are expected to continue into next week,” NW Natural said in the notice to customers.
Modest efforts to conserve gas “can make a big impact in helping the entire energy system navigate this extreme weather event,” said Kim Rush, NW Natural’s chief operations officer.
Rush said the company’s gas system is operating safely at full capacity and field teams ready to respond to customer needs.
Oregon
Convicted murderer sentenced to life in prison for Falls City, Oregon killing in 2024
FALLS CITY, Ore. — A 63-year-old was sentenced to life in prison for shooting and killing a man with a shotgun during a fight at a Falls City, Oregon property back in 2024.
A jury convicted Terry Lawrence Allwen of second-degree murder back on March 20, the Polk County District Attorney’s Office said.
He was sentenced Friday to serve life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
READ MORE | ‘What kind of monster does that?’ mom says as man sentenced for daughter’s killing
Allwen was also convicted of other charges like manslaughter, assault, and felon in possession of a firearm, but the sentences for those crimes will be served concurrently with the life sentence.
Court records show that Allwen was staying in an RV parked on a property owned by the victim, 79-year-old Bo Johnson.
At about 9 a.m. on May 31, 2024, Allwen and Johnson got into a verbal fight over some personal property. During that fight, Allwen got a shotgun from his trunk and shot Johnson once, killing him.
“Mr. Johnson had many more years to spend with his family. His senseless murder destroyed the dreams and plans of so many that loved him. I hope that the fact Mr. Allwen today received the maximum possible sentence will bring the family of Mr. Johnson some relief and sense of justice.”
If Allwen is granted parole, the judge also ordered that he have a lifetime of post-prison supervision.
Oregon
Merkley Announces Additional Oregon Town Halls April 2-4
Oregon
Oregon Supreme Court overturns JonBenét Ramsey photographer conviction
The Oregon Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of a Lane County man who once photographed child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey and was convicted in 2021 on several child pornography charges.
Randall DeWitt Simons, 73, of Oakridge, was charged in 2019 with 15 counts of first-degree encouraging child sex abuse. He was later convicted on every count and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Simons was first arrested after authorities began investigating a report from a restaurant in Oakridge that someone had been using the restaurant’s Wi-Fi to download inappropriate and concerning images.
Law enforcement officers directed the business to track, log, and report all of the user’s internet activity to the investigating officer for more than a year, without a warrant.
Police tracked the computer’s IP address from the restaurant’s Wi-Fi system, which led officers to a man who lived near the restaurant and had given Simons a computer, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Lane County Circuit Court. Investigators obtained a warrant to search the laptop in Simon’s home, relying on information they had collected over time. He was subsequently arrested.
On March 26, the court ruled warrantless internet surveillance on public Wi-Fi violates privacy.
In an opinion written by Justice Bronson D. James, the court held that the Oregon Constitution recognizes people have a right to privacy in their internet browsing activities and the right is not extinguished when they use a publicly accessible wireless network. It’s even true in cases where that access is conditioned on a person accepting a terms-of-service agreement that says a provider may monitor activity and cooperate with law enforcement, James wrote.
During criminal proceedings in the Lane County Circuit Court, Simons moved to controvert the warrant and suppress the evidence obtained by police, arguing the business was a “state actor for purposes of Article I, section 9, and that its year-long warrantless surveillance was an unconstitutional, warrantless search attributable to the state,” the Supreme Court opinion said.
The Circuit Court denied Simon’s motion. The Oregon Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision in part and stated Simons had no cognizable privacy interest in his internet activities performed on a third-party network.
The Oregon Supreme Court rejected the state’s argument.
“The mere fact that a person accesses the internet through a public network does not eliminate their Article I, section 9, right to privacy in their online activities,” according to James. “Even when access is expressly conditioned on a user’s acceptance of terms-of-service provisions purporting to alert the user that the provider may monitor activity and cooperate with law enforcement.”
Justice K. Bushong suggested in a partial dissent the Court should reconsider its approach in a future case to what constitutes a “search” under the Oregon Constitution. The court’s decision reverses the Court of Appeals and sends the case back to the Lane County Circuit Court for further proceedings.
Simons has maintained his innocence since he was arrested in 2019.
Simons had been a photographer for 6-year-old Colorado beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey a few months before her still-unsolved 1996 murder, the Associated Press reported in 1998.
In October 1998, Simons was arrested on a charge of indecent exposure in Lincoln County, Colorado. According to the book “Perfect Murder, Perfect Town” by Lawrence Schiller, Simons was arrested in 1998 for allegedly walking nude down a residential street in the small town of Genoa, Colorado. Simons allegedly offered to the arresting deputy unprovoked, “I didn’t kill JonBenét.”
Haleigh Kochanski is a breaking news and public safety reporter for The Register-Guard. You may reach her at HKochanski@gannett.com.
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