By: Ragan Love
If there is one thing I miss from my home state, it would be the snow. Winter is my favorite season and I love bundling up and baking. I knew this was something that I wouldn’t experience in Portland and I was ready for a city that mainly rains.
My roommate who is from Portland would repeatedly say how it never snows in Portland. The last time it snowed the entire city shut down for days which is really weird for me to think about. I grew up going to school with terrible road conditions with lots of snow and below freezing temperatures. I had more days of going to school when it should have been a snow day than actual snow days.
Over the last week, I saw that snow was in the forecast for Portland and I was expecting a light flurry, but that Thursday when the snow started, I was surprised by how much was falling and how much started sticking to the ground. By the time the ground was covered, the snow turned into freezing rain and covered the city in a layer of ice.
I will admit, I did think it was silly how Portland reacted to snow but I do understand why. With how much it rains, the cold temperatures turn that into ice that covers everything. And since the city doesn’t salt the roads, they continue to be sheets of ice. When I stepped outside, the snow was so frozen it didn’t collapse from my weight.
I was supposed to work the entire weekend but the restaurant I worked at decided to close. I did go in for a couple hours Friday night, but that was to just help close so everyone could leave before the sun went down. My roommate also worked that day and he usually takes the bus which stopped running when his shift ended so we had to trek over to rescue him.
One our way back from picking him up, we saw many power lines snapping and breaking because of the weather, which made us a little anxious that we would lose power. Fortunately we had a few flares of the power going out but we didn’t completely lose it like many families in the city.
These past two days are the most consecutive snow days I have had in a row, and honestly it’s weird for me to think of getting a day off due to weather. But I am glad that we are taking time off to ensure that all students and teachers can be in class and that my job closed so that we did not have to drive on the roads.