The Autodesk Lake Oswego Oregon (Portland) office has been closed the past two days due to a rare snow storm named Decima that hit Wednesday December 14th, 2016.

The snow total was 1-3 inches and to many that may not seem like much snow, but understand we don’t normally get snow so the the transportation system and drivers are not ready or prepared. With all the hills and winding roads and some of the snow melting and then freezing to ice it got really bad in a hurry at evening commute time. It took me 3-1/2 hours to get home less than 5 miles and I seen many slide offs, accidents, and many just abandoned vehicles. Many drivers just didn’t know how to drive in the snow and would accelerate and spin tires or stomp on the brakes when trying to stop and then would just slide off the road. I couldn’t believe how many decided to try to drive a small car and then abandoned right in the lane of traffic trapping me and hundreds of other motorists. We had to move several vehicles to the side of the road since the panicked drivers just walked away. Just a mile from the Autodesk office there was a 12 car wreck everyone had to navigate through.

I grew up in deep heavy snow storms of the intermountain west so I was just fine driving in this weather, but the other drivers were not. I gave some adhoc driver coaching to drivers while stopped waiting for other cars to move. I explained explained to just drive slow, don’t stomp on the brakes, wait for other cars to clear the top of the hill before starting to drive up it so you could keep momentum and for goodness sake don’t stop half way up a hill.

What the roads and traffic looked like from the Autodesk office.

A few photos from Wednesday night commute fun.

Employees were told they should work from home the past two days. I tried to work from home but my internet service has been affected by the storm and I got cabin fever fast. No traffic or people meant I could fly a drone easily at the Autodesk office yesterday to document the rare snow day.

The office parking lot yesterday:

The office parking lot today:

It is nice working in the office today being the only person on my entire floor and getting the snacks and Stumptown cold brew coffee on tap all to myself. They are now forecasting more snow possibly tomorrow and the melting snow from today will make for iced driving tonight.

Sadly the event my FIRST Robotics high school team was hosting tomorrow BunnyBots was cancelled and re-scheduled for December 30, weather permitting.

Cheers,
Shaan