Neighbors rally together as they go week without power
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Oregon City, Oregon (KPTV) — After nearly a week without power, desperate times call for desperate measures to stay warm, for Tracy Stone of Oregon City.
“You’re resorting to stuff like how you can create heat in the house, so I created a can with toilet paper with the rubbing alcohol; it creates a flame,” Stone said Thursday, as he sat outside his apartment to stay warm in his running car.
“I’ve got a light bar to charge, but it went out, it’s been out like three times now, you got to keep coming back, the phone, solar charger, if I had a heating pad, I’d charge that too,” Stone said.
Fox 12 met Stone Thursday, as he sat inside his car charging his devices at the Kingsberry Heights apartments.
“I couldn’t sleep any longer because it was cold,” Stone said.
Just a couple cars down, Laura Voss pulled up to drop off supplies for her two sons who live here.
“This (lantern) is just to help them get through the night. It’s not much but it lights up pretty bright,” Voss said.
“My youngest boy he brought me his snake to watch because the snake was so cold he was afraid he was going to die, and I don’t like snakes,” Voss added.
And it’s the spirit of giving that’s warming the hearts of the more than 200 people who live in the low-income community, despite the cold weather.
“There’s a lot of people who are disabled, single-parent families,” said neighbor Valarie Weikel. “I’m down a half a tank of gas just in charging people’s devices for them.”
Weikel runs a neighborhood Facebook page at Kingsberry Heights and she sprang into action Friday when power was lost.
“We’re running a two-burner stove at our house, a grill at the house next door, at our barn we were able to bring three propane tanks over, and we’ve been cooking for people and anybody that needs anything,” Weikel said.
It’s unclear when power will be restored at Kingsberry Heights.
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