PORTLAND, Ore. — In less than 24 hours, the crystal blue skies we’ve been seeing all week long are going to be replaced by gray and stormy skies. Portland General Electric (PGE) has been watching the forecast for days so they can get crews in place.

“Based on the weather forecast we’re seeing, some wind gusts coming out of the Columbia River Gorge tonight and going into tomorrow, and we’re also looking at some precipitation through the metro area,” said John Farmer, a spokesperson with PGE.

PGE also have their own team looking at how severe Thursday and Friday’s storm could be.

“We have a team of meteorologists, and they provide a lot of early insights on when it comes to weather forecasts and that allows us to know where we need to be,” added Farmer.

Pacific Power is no different, having crews look at what could happen in the city and beyond.

“We have crews who are ready to go on all of our operation centers around the state, including here in Portland and are ready to deploy at moment’s notice if there are any outages that we have,” said Simon Gutierrez, senior communications specialist with Pacific Power.

If customers do lose power, it’s important to have some things already packed up just in case residents are without power for a bit. While crews will be working to make sure everyone is safe inside, they also want residents to be safe if they go outside, too.

“It you see a downed power line if the wind does take down a power line, the No. 1 thing is to treat that line as though it is live,” said Farmer.