Meg Roussos / The BulletinWade Fagen, of Fagen Tree Service, cuts a fallen tree into sections that a crane will remove from a house in Northeast Bend.

Strong wind gusts brought down trees, knocking out electricity Friday in Central Oregon and damaging homes and other property.

The high winds caused the Bend Park & Recreation District to close Pioneer Park indefinitely until workers can safely remove fallen trees and debris at the NW Portland Avenue and Wall Street location.

The National Weather Service had issued a high wind warning for Central Oregon that was lifted shortly after 6:30 p.m. Friday. The warning is given when winds reach 40 mph and gusts surpass 58 mph.

Mike Duarte, landscape manager for the Bend park district, said Pioneer Park could be closed until Tuesday. The district had workers assess the fallen trees on Friday, but realized the winds were still too strong.

“The winds were so bad we felt it was too dangerous for crews to go in there,” said Duarte.

“We’re not going to open until we get it cleaned up,” he said.

Wind gusts neared 60 mph east of Bend at one point, according to the weather service. Redmond saw gusts reach about 44 mph. Pine Mountain Observatory, southeast of Bend, had wind gusts reach 81 mph.

The strong winds took down dozens of trees and created a busy day for tree service businesses in the area. Fagen Tree Service and Wood Chips had received 60 calls for tree removals by Friday afternoon.

“It’s about the busiest we’ve been in 10 years,” said Wade Fagen, an arborist and owner of the company. “This is a pretty big storm and lots of trees are down all over.”

Fagen said Friday was a “triage” approach for his company, focusing on removing trees that had created significant damage to roofs so that a tarp could be placed over any holes to keep out rain.

The largest tree Fagen worked on removing Friday was a 4-foot in diameter spruce in Northwest Bend, he said.

Most Central Oregon cities reported having wind in the 35-45 mph range Friday accompanied by light rain at times. A 60 percent chance of rain is expected today with a high temperature of 50 degrees, according to the weather service. Winds are expected to be between 25-30 mph and gusts reaching about 45 mph.

A tree estimated by an arborist to be at least 125 years old fell onto a house in 1600 block of NW Awbrey Road in Bend. The 100-foot-tall tree fell at about 1 a.m. Friday, according to David Nogueras of Bend.

“The wind was howling and I suddenly had a fear that tree was going to fall on my house before it happened,” he said. “When I heard the bang, I jumped out of bed and put some clothes on and looked out my back door.”

Nogueras’ home was spared, but his next-door neighbor’s house had a portion of the roof punctured. No one was at the damaged home when the tree fell and no one was injured.

About 315 Pacific Power customers total were without power Friday evening in about 15 different locations in Bend, said Bob Gravely, a utility spokesman. The outages totaled 660 earlier Friday. Power was expected to be restored overnight Friday, Gravely said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7820,

tshorack@bendbulletin.com