Seattle Loans Us 11 Snow Plows, Increasing Portland's Fleet by 20 Percent

We get by with a little help from our friends.

Portland snowstorm on Jan. 11, 2017. (Joe Riedl)
By Sophia June

It's no secret that Portland's infrastructure struggles to deal with snow.

While we actually have 55 snow plows in the city, it's not enough for this year's record-breaking storm, which is so bad that governor Kate Brown has officially declared Oregon to be in a state of emergency.

So we're bringing in backup.

Last night, the Portland Bureau of Transportation announced that the Seattle Bureau of Transportation will send snow plows and crew members to assist in clearing Portland's roads and cleaning up fallen trees.

SBOT is sending 15 crew members and 11 trucks to Portland, including four heavy duty and four light duty plows, an aerial lift for downed tree removal, a wood chipper and a chain saw crew.

Seattle has 44 snow plows.

"With a storm of this magnitude, I felt it was extremely important that we do everything we could to get our streets clear and to keep Portland moving safely," said Commissioner Dan Saltzman in a statement. "I'm extremely grateful to Seattle DOT for the offer of assistance."

They began work this morning.

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