AP Photo A couple uses skis to cross a snowy street in downtown Portland today. A weekend winter storm that buried northern Oregon and slowed its largest city to a crawl was expected to let up some after spilling into the workweek.

PORTLAND (AP) — City buses got stuck in snow, parts of major highways were closed, and traffic slowed to crawl as Portland and the rest of Western Oregon — which rarely gets a significant snowstorm — struggled Monday to cope with one of its worst in years.

Wintry weather that had begun more than a week ago built to a crescendo over the weekend with high winds and then, on Sunday, heavy snow.

The storm conjured memories of a major regional storm in December 1968.

Gresham, a Portland suburb, got more than a foot of snow — so much that fire trucks and other emergency vehicles were reportedly having difficulty making it to their destinations.

Gresham’s mayor, Shane Bemis, declared an emergency because of the piles of snow combined with icy roads.

About a foot of snow fell onto downtown Portland. Fire trucks were transporting homeless people to shelters where they could warm up. Stores remained open, and some seemed to be doing a brisk business from people doing last-minute Christmas shopping.

Thousands of people left their cars at home. Those who dared to go to work or to venture out for errands rode the bus or Portland’s light-rail train. But even the buses, equipped with tire chains, were having trouble making it along the streets. The light rail was also having delays.

A city spokeswoman warned residents not to expect much change.

“What we see on our streets today we are likely to see on Christmas Day,” said Cheryl Kuck of the city department of transportation.

The National Weather Service said the storm may wind up among the top 10 storms measured in the Portland area since records have been kept, beginning in 1880.

The snow depth in downtown Portland fell short of monster snowfalls of 31.8 inches in 1893, 27.9 inches in 1916, and 22.3 inches in 1884. But as it began to taper off Monday, it was approaching the 13-inch depths of the ninth and 10th storms, in 1890 and 1956.

It ranked as the biggest December snowstorm since 1968, and the biggest winter storm since January 1980 in the downtown measurements, the weather service said.

Portland General Electric said that about 63,000 of its customers were without power by about noon. Pacific Power said more than 6,000 of its customers were without electricity.

With high winds in the Columbia Gorge whipping vehicles across a slick highway, Interstate 84 east of Portland was shut down for a second day, and state officials said it wouldn’t reopen “anytime soon.”

Big trucks whose travel plans were thwarted clogged a frontage road at an exit east of the city, and the Department of Transportation said some had to be moved or drivers would be ticketed.

Traffic inched along Interstate 5, the main north-south highway through Western Oregon.

State highways through the northern edge of the Coast Range were closed.

Amtrak service was canceled or delayed.

The Greyhound bus terminal in Portland was closed, stranding scores of people.

As of Monday morning, 124 arrivals and departures had been canceled at Portland International Airport, but some flights were getting out. About 200 people spent the night at the airport Saturday, 300 on Sunday.

Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air said they would resume flying in Seattle and Portland with significantly reduced schedules, but the airline said its planes didn’t get out of the airport Monday morning.

Snow began falling on Saturday, and the storm intensified on Sunday and through the night.

So Monday was the third day of hunkering down in Portland, a city that rarely sees such heavy snowfall and whose officials have insisted that buying bigger fleets of snowplows and other storm equipment isn’t wise for such rare events.

The storm taxed emergency workers.

“Calling about broken pipes, power outages, and road conditions are not appropriate use of 911 or our emergency crews,” Bemis, the Gresham mayor, said in a statement. “If you want to help, please just stay home and stay off the roads.” The city said only vehicles with chains were allowed on the streets.

The state government shut down its agency offices in Portland but kept Salem buildings open, telling workers to use their best judgment about traveling to work.