LA PINE, OR -- Last weekend's storm dumped more than 30" of snow on south Deschutes County, causing a major outage for Midstate Electric customers. Power has been restored to many, but dozens of La Pine residents could remain in the dark until Wednesday.
The Red Cross has opened a shelter at the La Pine Calvary Chapel, behind Ray’s Market on 3rd Street. Lisa Stroup, with the Red Cross, says the biggest priority is staying warm. “Temperatures and staying warm are of course our number one concern. And then if people aren’t in their home and don’t have access to their food and those kinds of things then the shelter is a good place to come and get a warm meal and a cup of coffee and be able to get some information and stay n top of what’s happening.”
She says the shelter will will remain open as long as necessary. “The shelter will be open 24-hours a day as long as first responders indicate to the Red Cross that it is needed. Then at some point, as it starts to pare down, there will be signs on the shelter to let people know where to go and what the resource phone numbers are.” At the height of the outage, more than 2500 customers were without power in southern Deschutes and northern Klamath counties.
