Weather out west forces forces Sporting KC season opener to Monday

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV/AP) - Severe winter weather in the Portland, Oregon, area has forced Sporting KC’s season opener to move to Monday, Feb. 27.

They will now take on the Portland Timbers at Providence Park in Portland at 9 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 27. It was originally supposed to take place on Saturday.

Sporting KC shared the news from Major League soccer on Thursday night. They said the match ”will stream free on the Apple TV app in both English and Spanish.”

The Season Kickoff event from 6 to 8 p.m. on Saturday at Chicken N Pickle in Overland Park will remain scheduled for season ticket members. That event will not be open to the general public. Everyone who reserved a ticket via SeatGeek for the watch party at Chicken N Pickle from 8 to 11:30 p.m. will receive information from the club.

According to the Associated Press, the nearly 11 inches that fell in Portland amounted to the second snowiest day in the city’s history.

It took drivers by surprise, they report, stalling traffic during Wednesday evening’s rush hour and trapping motorists on freeways for hours. Some spent the night in their vehicles or abandoned them altogether as crews struggled to clear roads. Other commuters got off spun-out buses and walked in groups to safety.

The National Weather Service had predicted only a slim chance of significant snow and plans to review its work, the AP reported.

“Kim Upham endured a 13-hour ordeal as snow brought traffic to a standstill on U.S. 26, a mountainous highway that connects Portland to the coast,” the AP writes. “Already treacherous because of its steep grade, the highway was covered in a sheet of ice, forcing some drivers to leave their cars in the middle of the road.”

“It was so scary to have semi-trucks behind you and semi-trucks in front of you, and you know you’re on a slope,” she told them.

“As the hours stretched on, some drivers began to worry about surviving until morning,” the report says. “Upham used a blanket to stay warm and spent the night in her car. To save gas, she turned the vehicle on only intermittently to run the windshield wipers and inch ahead when traffic moved slightly.”

“I really don’t want to die on 26,” she told them. “I was thinking that quite often, to be honest with you.”

MORE: Winter storms sow more chaos, shut down much of Portland

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