An ice storm caused widespread closures throughout Central Oregon over the last week, forcing Redmond schools to close on Friday as well COCC and OSU-Cascades.

The Redmond Airport closed to all traffic for more than 12 hours from Jan. 17-18 and again briefly on Jan 21. Delays and cancellations have continued as airlines try to reorder their planes and recover from winter disruptions.

“We are open and operational. Unless the weather does something different, we should be good to go and the airlines are coming in and going out,” said Redmond Airport manager Zach Bass.

Ray Lane, an Alaska Airlines spokesperson said three flights were canceled on the morning of Jan. 19, including flights to Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles. More were canceled on Jan. 20-21, but Lane said schedules would likely find their footing again and get back to normal.

“With the reopening of the runway, we should be back on track,” Lane said.

The airport reopened to air travel about 9 a.m. Friday morning.

The first flights began leaving the ice-cleared runways about 11:30 a.m.

At least one flight on Jan. 18 was in the air and bound for Redmond when the closure went into effect and was re-routed to Eugene.

Passengers should contact their airline directly to get updated flight information.

Bass said that freezing rain is the worst weather an airport can get. About a tenth of an inch of ice coated the runway Thursday

afternoon, Bass said, and continued to fall throughout the evening and again on Sunday.

“We would much, much rather have a bunch of snow than any amount of freezing rain,” Bass said. “Once the freezing rain stops, or turns into more snow, it usually takes us an hour or two to make sure the runway is completely bare.”

Crews perform regular friction tests on the runway. If it gets too slick, Federal Aviation Administration rules require the airport to close. Bass said he can’t remember the last time Redmond Airport closed for more than an hour — much less overnight.

“Normally we only close the airport maybe once or twice all winter,” said Bass. “Usually for short amounts of time.”

The weather caused more problems than just at the airport.

Local highways closed for stretches and there were numerous serious crashes.

Redmond Fire & Rescue said it responded to 11 calls for service for pipe breaks in Redmond during the cold snap. Dustin Miller, deputy fire chief for Redmond Fire & Rescue, said usually the agency responds to one or two a day this time of year.

“We’ve been noticing pipe breaks, which triggers an alarm and we respond and check it out,” Miller said. “We had a bunch on Wednesday, and Wednesday was that little thaw period. We don’t get them when the pipes freeze, we get them when the water starts to thaw and then the pipe leaks because it has been broken and it creates the alarm.”