All quiet on the Street of Dreams Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Snow-covered equipment sits idle today at the site of the 2007 Street of Dreams in Oregon City. Many schools and businesses were closed today after yesterday's snowstorm left Portland's roads icy and treacherous.

When I went to bed on Monday evening, the weather forecasters were betting on just a trace of snow falling Tuesday morning in the Portland metro area. By the time I got up on Tuesday morning, there was already more than an inch on the ground, and it kept falling until mid-morning. By the time it stopped, two to four inches had fallen across the city.

In the City of Roses, where schools seem to close for even a heavy frost, chaos ensued. While ODOT and city crews worked hard to clear the roads, it was just too much for them to handle. The TV news stations played almost continuous footage of cars sliding down the roads bouncing off one another, or just getting stuck going up the slightest hills. Perhaps the craziest video was shot by an amateur just a few blocks from my apartment.

Many kids, who didn't have to go to school, spent the day sledding. Unfortunately, there were dozens of sledding injuries reported, including a 14-year-old boy in Vancouver who was hit by a minivan when he slid out into the street in front of it. Rescuers had to jack up the vehicle to free the boy.

The worst decision, however, had to be the father who was towing his 9-year-old daughter and an 18-year-old friend on an innertube behind his truck. As he was doing donuts in a field, the tube slammed into a brick bench, fatally injuring the girl. Police have said that alcohol was a factor. You can read more about that, also on KGW.

I had plenty to keep me occupied indoors yesterday. Although the roads around my house remained snowcovered this morning, I headed down to the Street of Dreams site outside of Oregon City, where excavation on one of the houses was supposed to start today. (It didn't.)

Homestead Images has made arrangements with three of the six builders (KDC Construction, Lakeside Custom Homes, and West One Homes) to document the construction of their homes. Construction will be complete by early July, and the show is open to the public from July 27 through Aug. 26.