And good evening. We begin here at
5:00 tonight with winter weather
all around our region. It's soggy
in the valley. And this is the view
from the wet roads on Interstate
84 in Troutdale. And there is snow in the
mountains, a lot of it with more
on the way tonight in the Cascades
and a winter storm warning that started this
afternoon in the gorge.
Thank you for joining us.
I'm Laurel Porter.
Let's get right to the weather center
where chief meteorologist Matt
Zaffino is tracking the snow tonight.
Wintry weather has arrived, Matt.
Yeah, it's all around this floral.
The central gorge and the Cascades will
really bear the brunt of the snowfall,
the valleys, that cold rain,
of course, and the heaviest
precipitation hasn't even arrived yet,
still moving into the Washington coast.
That'll be sagging inland overnight.
So it's going to get very blustery and be
very stormy during the overnight hours.
The valleys, meanwhile,
have a wind advisory because of the
strong SE winds that will develop tonight,
then switch to the southwest.
But up in the Cascades and in the gorge,
it's really going to dump.
So for the gorge, first winter storm warning.
Until 10:00 AM tomorrow morning,
up to a foot of new snow by that time then
the east wind is going to shift to westerly.
That'll warm things up a bit and push
the snow level up, not very high,
but above the river level,
so up to about 500 feet or so.
So that means for Hood River and ID four
through the gorge it'll turn to all
rain and really West of Cascade locks,
certainly West of Multnomah Falls,
who probably won't see any snow at all.
So it's really going to be that central
gorge in the upper Hood River valley,
which may just stay snow right on
through tomorrow and tomorrow night
winter storm warning in the Cascades.
Up to two feet of new snow.
So the skiing just keeps getting better
and better, but it's gonna be windy.
In the passes will be snow covered in
spite of the snow level going up a bit.
And then for the valleys we've got a wind
advisory for gusts of 40 miles an hour.
It's just going to get windier as the night
goes on and there could be power outages,
downed tree limbs and the like.
The usual things that happen when we
get a good windstorm of the valleys
tomorrow still blush through the winds.
Best chance for valley snow either
Thursday night Friday morning or
Friday night Saturday morning.
But it's not a very good chance.
It's not exactly the right setup.
Or Valley Snow,
but it certainly is for the Cascades.
Laurel, back to you.
So much going on. Thank you, Matt.
Skiers and boarders are grateful to see
all that snow piling up in the Cascades.
Yesterday, Timberline Lodge opened
for the season and this morning
Mount Hood Meadows followed suit.
Christel Kumoi takes us up to the mountain.
Any snow is great snow,
especially in November.
That's always the hope here at
Mount Hood Meadows, and this year
Dave Dragon with the ski resort
says they're in luck.
And this storm is making it happen for us.
Thanks to snow piling up in the
mountains over the last couple
of days, on Tuesday morning,
Meadows officially open for
its 55th season. We've got 37 inches
here in the base area and closer
to between 4 1/2 and five feet.
That mid mountain and that's what
we're looking for by later in the week
to be able to connect our base area
here with some of the upper lifts.
Meadows has Daisy
Easy Rider buttercup and
the ballroom carpet lifts
open. We advise everybody with early
season conditions that you have to watch
for unmarked obstacles and that there
are areas that can be kind of shallow
while meadows got enough snow
to officially start the season.
Other areas, like right here in Sandeen,
got a light dusting, and that's
promising news for local businesses.
As the snow kind of comes down.
We just get hordes of people coming
from Portland, just big rushes,
so it's really nice to get
everyone out on the mountain.
Meadowlark Ski shop in Sandy
is closed in the summer,
so manager Gary says even a small dusting
of snow is a good sign for business.
After the pandemic,
it seems like business
has gotten even busier,
so people want to get on the mountain.
People like Jake and Wally who've been.
Up the mountain twice already
this week. This is a good time
to get out with your friends and see a lot
of really cool stuff
and go ride the slopes and give some some
fresh powder, you know?
And everyone around here is pretty
stoked for some fresh powder.
The Stoke level is very high here
and we're just seeing a lot of snow
in the windows for the forecast
over the next 10 to 14 days.
Lanina will do this and it's a
great way to get the season going.
And with more snow on the way,
the expect to open additional list by
the weekend at Mount Hood Meadows.
Crystal Conway KGW News
and that Stoke level will get even higher.
We have a traffic alert for you tonight.
Westbound Hwy. 26 is closed right now
near banks due to a deadly crash.
This is at Northwest Dersham Rd.
By exit 55. Oregon State Police confirm
now at least one person has died.
These pictures from a viewer show that
firefighters had to cut off the roof.
Of a car to get someone out.
They're asking people to avoid the
area and to please find another route.
A large, problematic
homeless camp off N
Columbia Blvd.
Is getting cleared today.
Blair best has been covering
this camp for months,
as it's negatively impacted nearby
businesses with little response
from the city until today.
This is what's left of a large
homeless encampment buried in
the woods off N Columbia Blvd.
In the St. John's neighborhood.
Pbot crews removed vehicles,
some of them stolen from the encampment
that's been years in the making.
Formerly known as Grace's Oasis,
this is the site that was charging
campers rent to illegally squat on
government owned property. It's
taken a toll on all
the businesses out
here, I mean. It's not helping.
Jeff White runs Kurtz Harvey
in storage right next door.
Those living at the camp have targeted
his business by breaking in and
stealing from him numerous times,
and he spent months reporting
it to the city. It's
been way too long.
I know there's camps everywhere,
but it's been like 6-8 months.
That's how long it's taken this
city to respond to this camp.
But every car, every trailer a home,
it's a very hectic atmosphere
here in this homeless.
Camp off N Columbia Blvd.
As PBOT crews removed
dozens of broken down cars,
even things like this large boat.
Now friends of those living in this
camp are frantically trying to help the
homeless pack up their things before
the city forces them out for good.
This definitely does not help
on the road to getting her
life back on her feet at all.
Brian Mackenzie has lived
here for six months.
We'll probably
just leave for a couple nights and come
back after it's cleaned. Really. Really.
That's how everybody does
it in North Portland. Blair best, KGW news.
The homeless crisis is just one issue.
The City of Portland is facing record
levels of gun violence is another.
And to make matters worse,
the Portland Police Bureau finds itself
in the middle of a staffing crisis.
Let's bring in Mike Benner in our newsroom.
And Mike, this staffing crisis is not
due to a lack of interest in the job.
Not at all, Laurel.
In fact, last year more than 600
people applied to be a police officer,
more than double that this year.
If anything, the staffing crisis
has more to do with the lack of
staff able to do background checks.
Applicants.
Not to mention the Bureau's
High standards standards that
were met by the two people
you're about to hear from.
The records division at the Portland
Police Bureau is where California
transplant Amy Nidiffer took a
job in February of this year.
She was beyond excited to be putting
her criminal justice degree to good use.
But almost immediately after
taking the job, Amy got an itch.
Reading the reports
and seeing how much our officers do
to help the community and connect them
with resources and be there for them.
It totally changed my like,
my perspective on officers,
and that really pushed me to.
Be like, oh, I want,
I wanna go out there and help too. So
in April, the 25 year old
applied to be an officer.
She was hired and sworn in in August.
In fact, this is video from Amy's
swearing in ceremony next month.
She'll start months worth of training
before hitting the streets that
have seen unusual amounts of crime,
including record levels of gun violence.
I think for me, just being here
when it's tough, you know,
when we're having a tough time and trying
to help them and help the community.
Get out of that. Being part of that
healing process is so fulfilling, yeah.
Echoing that sentiment is Trey Jackson,
who is joining the police
Bureau at the young age of 21.
The Portland native tells us
he applied last December and
was hired and sworn in in July,
adding that he might not have chosen this
career if not for the school resource
officer at his elementary school.
He showed me his car,
let me go through.
He gave me stickers every day.
He's a really good guy.
And then when I turned 15,
he told me to start thinking
about the cadet program because
he knew that I've always
wanted to be a police officer.
Trey and Amy make up two of the
89 officers currently training to
join a Bureau that finds itself in
the middle of a staffing crisis.
As of November 29th,
the Bureau has less than 800 sworn members.
That's down considerably from the
more than 1000 sworn members back
in 2019 that we desperately want to.
Have more police officers?
Sergeant Trevor Tyler,
who spent a year and a half in
the Bureau's personnel division,
says hiring officers is no easy task.
Just look at what happened in 2021.
We know that 675 people applied
to be a Portland police officer,
but only 27 people were hired.
Sergeant Tyler says a lack of
background checkers is 1 explanation,
but he adds that some applicants might
be disqualified for things like recent
marijuana use or a poor driving record.
You can't be a driver if you've had
three moving violations in three years,
per our city insurance policy.
We we don't want to have high risk
drivers because it's such a big.
Part of our job.
All of that said,
Sergeant Tyler says the Bureau is working
its way out of the staffing crisis.
And for proof,
look no further than the recent
hires who aren't phased by the
current climate in the Rose City.
Nowadays, the city is not as
clean or as safe as it used to be.
And I think that it's going to
take a group of professional,
tough minded individuals to really,
you know, take it back and
make it a better place.
I understand some people
have left because it is a.
It's a tough time and there's
no there's no secret to that.
But the people that are here,
they love their jobs.
That is the most.
Amazing and incredible
thing about this Bureau and
playing into the staffing crisis is
the time it takes to train new hires.
Take Amy Nidiffer for instance.
She's been officially hired.
She's about to start Academy.
But it might not be until
this time next year.
She's working the streets on her own.
Laurel. Interesting insight.
Thank you, Mike. The group
don't shoot. Portland has
settled a lawsuit with
the city of Portland.
It's over the police Bureau's use
of tear gas during the summer
protests of 2025 protesters.
They say they were hurt by tear gas.
Will each get more than $50,000?
Don't shoot. Portland will also
get a symbolic $1.00 award.
In June of 2020,
a judge issued a restraining order
limiting when police could use tear gas
and less lethal force against protesters.
He later found officers violated that
order as part of the lawsuit settlement.
Portland police will also be limited moving
forward when it comes to crowd control,
and that includes restrictions
on when they can use tear gas.
And a ban on flash bang rubber ball devices.
A grand jury has cleared two officers of
wrongdoing in a deadly shooting from June.
A Clackamas County detective and
an Oregon State trooper shot and
killed 24 year old Derek Clark
following a car chase near Milwaukee.
Authorities say they tried to stop
Clark that night for speeding.
They say he tried to escape
before crashing into a ditch.
He then, they say,
got out of the car with a gun and ran,
raising the gun in the air at one point.
And that's when he was shot and killed.
Last night,
a Clackamas County grand jury returned
what's called a not true bill,
clearing the officers of any wrongdoing.