Recent Oregon Emergencies

2023 Landslide

Ongoing rainstorms in early January drenched southwest Oregon, cutting off power, flooding communities, prompting evacuations, and causing a major landslide in southwest Oregon on Hwy 101 along the coast near the town of Port Orford. The landslide caused a 200-yard section of the highway to collapse 15 feet in some areas. The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) closed all lanes of Hwy 101 to traffic for nearly a week preventing emergency and essential services including fuel deliveries to some southern Oregon communities.

ODOE staff worked with fuel distributors to deliver smaller loads of fuel to communities on the southern Oregon coast once a single lane was re-opened five days after the closure. ODOE also worked with the California Energy Commission on an alternate route via California highways to meet southern Oregon communities fuel needs during the Highway 101 closure.

Active landslides are common along Oregon's south coast and ODOT continuously monitor multiple active landslides in this area. 

Wildland Fires

2020 Fire Season - The Labor Day 2020 windstorm resulted in five simultaneous “megafires”– fires greater than 100,000 acres in size – in Oregon. These fires started September 7 - 8, 2020, and in a matter of days burned more than 1 million acres. While Oregon’s fuel supply and distribution system was not directly impacted, there were limiting factors affecting fuel access. Fire suppression and utility crews responding to affected areas lacked fueling capabilities for their trucks within the response area. ODOE coordinated with fuel cardlock facilities to secure fuel cards for fire fighters and utility crews. Without ODOE’s support, these first responders would have had to drive more than an hour away to fill their tanks before returning to continue critical life safety work. ODOE also coordinated a mission to reprogram fuel pumps in a fire-impacted area to ensure first responders could access fuel.

2021 Fire Season – Starting in June 2021, a sudden increase in commercial air travel as the COVID pandemic waned, coupled with an early wildfire season in late spring, resulted in jet fuel supply and distribution problems for smaller airports in southern and northeast Oregon to support wildland firefighting missions. While there was no shortage of jet fuel in Oregon, there were logistical challenges connecting available supplies with fuel haul trucks and drivers to get the much-needed fuel to those local airports where the demand for jet fuel exceeded local supplies. ODOE worked with state, local, and federal partners, as well as with the private sector, to ensure firefighters had the fuel they needed to continue to fight wildfires. This included establishing procedures in coordination with the Oregon Department of Forestry and the Oregon Department of Aviation for requesting and meeting fuel needs in future wildfire seasons.

Learn more about wildfire response.

2021 Winter Storm

In February 2021, the Governor declared a state of emergency after freezing rain and snow blanketed nine Oregon counties, causing treacherous conditions. Because roundtrip fuel deliveries from Portland to central Oregon and to some coastal communities average ten hours under normal conditions, ODOE coordinated with the Oregon Department of Transportation to secure an Hours-of-Service (HOS) waiver to allow fuel truck drivers to exceed the 11-hour limitation, if needed, to make timely deliveries without penalties. Oregon HOS laws limits drivers to 11 hours of drive time within a 14-hour window after 10 consecutive hours off-duty. ODOE also worked with suppliers and distributors to coordinate fuel deliveries to first responders and critical infrastructure facilities like water and wastewater treatment facilities for powering backup generators.

INTRODUCTION FUEL SUPPLY & DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM TYPICAL DAY EMERGENCIES CASCADIA EVENT