CULVER, Ore. (KTVZ) – Thunderstorms that moved through Central Oregon Saturday brought strong winds, lightning and reports of downed trees and limbs, power outages affecting nearly 5,000 people and damage to the Crooked River Ranch.

The Over the Edge Taphouse at CRR posted a photo of the storm damage to its concert hall on its Facebook page and announced that a free concert planned for Saturday evening had to be canceled.

According to Jefferson County Sheriff Jason Pollock, a tree fell on power lines and caused a power outage in the Culver area. Pacific Power reported nearly 1,900 customers without power there on Saturday evening, and around 1,700 customers in Prineville.

Last month’s 700-acre Juniper Fire on the south side of Juniper Butte has created a road hazard, the sheriff added. “Because there is no vegetation, there is a lot of dust blowing across Highway 97 between mileposts 107 and 108,” Pollock said.

Strong winds from the storms were reported across much of the country, including at the Wasco County Fair and Rodeo in Tygh Valley, where one visitor reported that vendors’ goods were blown around by the wind and their tents were destroyed.

The National Weather Service in Pendleton issued a severe weather warning for nine counties in Oregon, including Deschutes, until 9 p.m. Saturday.

Meteorologists issued a special weather advisory Saturday evening warning that outflows from thunderstorms along the crest of the Cascade Range would produce wind gusts of about 45 mph as they moved eastward through central Oregon.

Firefighters also responded to new fires caused by lightning strikes and continued efforts to keep them to a minimum.

A power outage at Central Electric Cooperative affected NewsChannel 21’s Grizzly Mountain transmitter site and temporarily knocked out our three channels serving Crook and Jefferson counties. Power was restored around 6:30 p.m.

NewsChannel 21 Chief Meteorologist John Carroll has been tracking the numerous strong storms that moved through the region Saturday and is providing regular updates and radar imagery on our Facebook page.