BaltimOregon to Maine

Road closure in Portland/Flickr Creative Commons/By Major Clanger http://www.flickr.com/photos/major_clanger/3126754694/ )

Sure, snow is a beautiful and apparently rare event here in the Pacific Northwest. But this Portland storm has only been a pain.

My in-laws flew in last night but we haven’t seen them yet. They’re stranded in Portland: so close, yet so far away. We didn’t drive in to pick them up today, because chains were required, some even major roads were closed and we might have gotten stuck. Let’s just hope they make it in by Greyhound tomorrow. It’s times like this one feels really far away.

Just our luck: it’s the worst snowstorm to hit Portland since 1980. But here just 80-some miles south in Corvallis, our roads are clear, the snow has melted revealing green grass again. If only my in-laws could have gotten off in Eugene, where their plane stopped to refuel.

There seems to be a real dearth of snowplows in Oregon, too. Is it a matter of environmental policy, budget constraints or lack of manpower and actual plow trucks? Snow seems to always catch them off-guard here in this land of constant rains.

A rare sight: a snow plow at work in Portland/Flickr Creative Commons/By Major Clanger http://www.flickr.com/photos/major_clanger/3126760390/ )