A wind storm packing 70 mph gusts descended on Eugene late Thursday afternoon, leaving in its wake city-wide power outages, smashed cars and a campus strewn with debris.
Department of Public Safety Lt. Herb Horner said DPS received a call at about 4:30 p.m. of a branch going through a window in Lawrence Hall, then “all of a sudden, it was just one call after another.”
National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Starmer said he called a high-wind warning at 4:35 p.m., and the wind never dipped below 40 mph until after 5 p.m.
“We had reports of roofs blowing off,” Starmer said. “It’s not typical. But it’s certainly a time of year when intense storms can happen.”
Despite the damage, Thursday’s storm doesn’t come close to the infamous 1962 Columbus Day storm, which had sustained winds of 63 mph and gusts topping 86 mph.
By 7 p.m. Thursday, DPS compiled reports of more than 10 downed power lines and 17 uprooted or snapped trees on campus alone. There were no reports of major injuries.
Sacred Heart Medical Center and McKenzie-Willamette Hospital both reported a handful of small injuries; McKenzie-Willamette lost main power and had to rely on back-up generators. Sacred Heart switched to the power generator after the building’s lights began to flicker.
The wind snapped and uprooted thick tree trunks outside Deady Hall, the EMU and Pioneer Cemetery. A tree at the edge of cemetery, across University Street from McArthur Court, fell onto six parked cars and pinned a live power line to the ground.

Alan Jackson, from University Crowd Management, said two of the cars under the tree had broken windshields, and one truck directly under the tree looked to be bent in half.
University student Gregory Abel, owner of the bent 1984 silver Mazda B-2000-SE5 truck, appeared to take the news in stride as he surveyed the damage.
“That’s my truck. Was my truck,” he said.
The downed line caused power surges in Mac Court, and maintenance officials there didn’t try turning on the lights until 5:30 p.m. With the power line laying across the street and some cars, DPS blocked off University Street and only let people move cars on the Mac Court side of the street. Horner said DPS was waiting for the Eugene Water and Electric Board to shut off the power.
But EWEB and the Eugene Police and Fire Departments were stretched thin responding to wind-related damage in the West University neighborhood and the Eugene-Springfield area.
EWEB distribution planner Mel Taylor said five main transmission lines went down in the Eugene-Springfield area, causing about 15 percent of the system to shut down, but he expected 90 to 95 percent of EWEB customers would have their power restored by today.
EPD spokeswoman Pam Alejandre said every member of the Rapid Response Unit was dispatched to reports of downed power lines, small fires and malfunctioning traffic lights. The storm, which hit just as many people left work, caused major traffic jams on roads and highways.
A tree stuck a Lane Transit District bus at the corner of 13th Avenue and Pearl Street, but no injuries were reported.
“There are road closures in every part of the community,” Alejandre said. “We’ve had hundreds of calls.”
More than 500 calls were made to the 911 Communications Center throughout the evening to report storm-related damage, according to EPD.

One of those campus calls came from the Aldersgate Quads at 1436 Alder St., where a tree broke and smashed into the building’s roof.
“I got up to adjust the TV antenna, and boom,” Eugene resident Al Gaylord said. “We heard the crack of the electric line.”
The tree knocked out power to most of the block, including the Chi Omega sorority house at 1461 Alder St. A fire officer on the scene said the tree tore off the facing from around the top of the apartment, but none of the buildings suffered structural damage.
“My apartment is fine, except for some paint coming off the walls,” Gaylord said. “I’m amazed the window didn’t bust in.”
Elsewhere on campus, a falling branch hit a student’s leg as the student was crossing the EMU east lawn. Paramedics gave the student ice for the leg, and the student left the scene.
A Klamath Hall lab experienced a power outage that briefly shut down an exhaust control system that keeps fumes from experiments from building up.
“For all the stuff that went on, I think we were fortunate that more people weren’t hurt,” DPS Lt. Joan Saylor said.