Heavy snow comes as surprise

By Jeff Barnard
The Associated Press

	MARK YLEN / AP Bryan Gilder pushes his son Ivan as the two enjoy the snow on a hill near their home in Albany, Ore. Much of Oregon got snow overnight Sunday, causing traffic problems in metropolitan Portland and on Interstate 5 at the Siskiyou Summit.
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ASHLAND, Ore. — Hundreds of cars and trucks stranded by a fast-moving snowstorm on Interstate 5's highest mountain pass were escorted to safety yesterday after volunteers in snowmobiles brought food, water and gas to people stuck overnight in the cold.

A 57-year-old Oregon man stranded near the Siskiyou Summit in Southern Oregon died of a heart attack after helping other motorists put chains on their cars, authorities said. The man's name was not immediately released.

Northbound lanes opened at 4 p.m. to vehicles with chains, and southbound lanes were expected to reopen under the same conditions at 8 p.m., said John Vial, district manager for the Oregon Department of Transportation.

"We just had unusually heavy holiday traffic," Vial said.

"The call made to shut it down wasn't made in time. Those are tough decisions. We are not going to get all of them right," he said.

Kevin Wyatt of Medford, his face smeared with soot, spent the night with a tow truck pulling cars and trucks out of snowbanks.

"It's just been miserable," Wyatt said. "They thought it was a light storm, and it just came down super, super fast. After they got stuck we couldn't get up here fast enough. When it snows 4 inches in two minutes, you can't do nothing."

Vial estimated that 250 to 500 vehicles were stranded overnight after the pass through the Siskiyou Mountains was closed Sunday night.

Oregon State Police Lt. Kurt Barthel said the storm and traffic problems were the worst he has seen in 25 years working the Siskiyou Summit, just north of the California border.

Volunteers from Jackson County Search and Rescue used snowmobiles to bring supplies to hundreds of stranded drivers, most of whom carried no tire chains.

On the California side of the border, stranded motorists were on their way south by 12:30 p.m. yesterday, and there were no injuries or accidents to report, said Sgt. Don Jordan of the California Highway Patrol.

The California stretch of the freeway was expected to open by evening, Jordan said.

The National Weather Service said as much as 2 feet of snow had fallen along Interstate 5, which was shut down from Redding, Calif., to Ashland. State police said drifts were 6 to 7 feet high at the summit.

Families stuck on the highway remained in their cars and used cellphones to call home.

Hope Peelle of Puyallup said she borrowed water from another driver to make formula for her 9-month-old daughter and kept the bottle warm with her body heat. She and her husband, Victor Vega, were on their way home from visiting relatives in Ontario, Calif. The family took lots of snow pictures and turned the heater on intermittently to keep warm.

"I can tell you this: I'm flying next time," Vega said as they were escorted down the mountain.

Jorge Company of Olympia spent the night near the summit watching DVDs on his laptop and making friends with other stranded drivers. When he woke up in the morning, the snow was up to his car windows.

About 250 people who were able to get back down the mountain spent Sunday night in the gymnasium at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, said Perry Prince of the Red Cross.

In northeast Oregon, Pendleton received about 6 inches of snow.

Portland got a dusting during the morning rush hour, causing traffic tie-ups across the metropolitan area, but by afternoon the sun was shining.

In Salem, about 42,000 Portland General Electric customers were without power after 6 inches of snow fell.

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