20th Century

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard Sep 25, 2023 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

Pacific Northwest — Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Western Canadian Provinces

–51-55  Blanchard range. For low-end we use our tally based on Canadian and US State and

  locality breakouts. For high-end we rely on Robbins, noted below.

—     55  Robbins. Landscapes of Conflict: The Oregon Story, 1940-2000. Page 67.

–51-52  Blanchard tally based on Canadian and US State and locality breakouts below.

—        1  Idaho

–28-29  Oregon

—        1  Montana

—        9  Washington (We note 7 specific deaths; Weather Bureau notes 39, which we discount.)

—        1  Alberta Province, Canada 

—      10  British Columbia Province, Canada

—        1  Bonneville Dam between WA and OR.

—   >51  USGS. Floods of May-June 1948 in Columbia River Basin. 1949, p. 13.[1]

—     51  United Press. As of June 18 (including nine from Vanport flooding).[2]

—   <50  NWS. Flooding in Idaho. Clearwater River Basin floods of May 1948 in Idaho.

—   >50  Ott. “Vanport Flood begins on Columbia River on May 30, 1948.” HistoryLink.org, 8-30-2013.[3]

—     49  As of July 3 (including ten from Vanport flooding; another 16 people were still missing).[4]

—     48  As of June 26 (including ten from Vanport flooding).[5]

—     46  Kartman, Ben and Leonard Brown (Editors). Disaster! Read Books, 2007, pp. 322-323.

—     45  As of June 17 (according to Associated Press, including eight Vanport deaths).

—     43  As of June 14 (including five bodies recovered from still-flooded Vanport).[6]

—     38  As of June 12 (including five bodies recovered from Vanport).[7]

—     32  As of June 10 (boy, 10, and railroad engineer drown; locations not noted).[8]

—     30  As of June 9 (includes four drowning deaths at Vanport).[9]

—     26  As of June 7.[10]

—     26  As of June 5 (includes 2 at Vanport).[11]

—     24  As of June 1, not counting Vanport flooding.[12]

—     17  As of May 31, prior to additions from Vanport flooding.[13]

—     16  As of May 29, prior to Vanport flooding.[14]

—     14  As of May 28, prior to Vanport flooding.[15]

—       7  As of May 27, prior to Vanport flooding.[16]

—       5  As of May 24, prior to Vanport flooding.[17]

—       2  As of May 23, prior to Vanport flooding.[18]

Summary of State and Locality Breakouts Below

Idaho              (       1)

Oregon           (28-29)

Montana         (       1)

Washington    (       9)

Canada           (     11)

Undetermined(      1)  Body found against Bonneville Dam between WA and OR.

            Total:  51-52

Idaho                                                              (       1)

–1  Snake River 35 miles south of Lewiston, May 24. Male, 16, trying to reach island.[19]

Oregon                                                           (28-29)

–28-29  Blanchard tally based on locality breakouts below

—   ~25  Taylor, George & Raymond R. Hatton. The Oregon Weather Book. 1999, p. 93.[20]

Breakout of Oregon flood-related fatalities by locality:

—       2  Fossil and Condon area, John Day River. Drownings; cloudburst.[21] West of Portland.

—       8  Portland and area

–2  May 23. Two men off a tug boat in the Columbia river.[22]

–1  May 24. Boy, 4, from top of house boat in Columbia river.[23]

–1  Linton neighborhood, May 25. Male drowned rowing out to his houseboat.[24]

–1  May 30, 9:30 pm. Denver Ave. dike fails, Portland General Electric worker’s car in breach.[25]

–3  Swan Island (Portland neighborhood). Drowning; raft disintegrated; boys.[26]

–2-3  The Dalles (west) on Columbia Riv. in Wasco Co. Crewmen when tug Robert Grey sank[27]

— 16  Vanport. USGS. Floods of May-June 1948 in Columbia River Basin. 1949, p. 9.[28]

— 15  Vanport (or Vanport City)[29]          

—  32  (With seven more missing.)[30]

–~25  NWS Forecast Office, Portland, OR. Oregon’s Top 10 Weather Events of 1900s.[31] 

–<20  Capatides. “How Oregon’s second-largest city disappeared in less than an hour.”[32]

—  16  Topinka. ColumbiaRiverImages.com. “Vanport City and the 1948 Vanport Flood.” 2008.

—>16  USGS. National Water Summary 1988-89 — Floods and Droughts.[33]

–~15  Blanchard.[34] [Harrison notes 7 missing, but they could have moved in with family

           or moved out of the area.]

—  15  Dresbeck. Oregon Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival. 2006, p. 66.[35]

—  15  Robbins. Landscapes of Conflict: The Oregon Story, 1940-2000. 2004, 67-68.

—  15  Rubenstein. “Flood of Change.” The Oregonian, May, 1998.[36]

—  15  Sullivan. Oregon’s Greatest Natural Disasters. 2008, p. 134.

—  15  Wikipedia.  “Vanport City, Oregon.”

—  13  As of Aug 1 (Ten persons noted as till on missing list.).[37]

—  10  As of June 23 (Mrs. Izumi Oyama, 47; though article notes hers as ninth death).[38]

—    7  As of June 16 (bodies recovered).[39]

—    2  As of June 5. Both were children.[40]

Breakout of Vanport identified fatalities and recovered unidentified bodies.

1. Beadle, Florence, 44. (org. “The Vanport Flood (1948).”
2. Butcher, Michael 2, and his sister [Noted by Rubenstein.]
3. Butcher, Sally, 11-months.
4. Hopkins, Earl Wayne, 58. UP. “Flood’s Ebb Adds to Woe…” Berkeley Daily Gazette, CA, 6-16-1948, p2.
5. Smith, Henry George, 26. UP. “Flood’s Ebb Adds to Woe…” Berkeley Daily Gazette, CA, 6-16-1948, p2.
6. Smith, Ila Mae 21, wife of Henry. UP. “Flood’s Ebb Adds to Woe…” Berkeley Daily Gazette, CA, 6-16-1948, p.2.
7. Unidentified boy, about 5. One of first two victims found June 5. Other was boy about 1½.[41]
8. Unidentified woman, about 35, found floating near Denver Avenue fill June 10; fifth body.[42]
9. Unidentified persons found after October 1 at Vanport.

Breakout of recovery of Vanport fatalities by date:

1. June 4. Body of an unidentified child.
2. June 4. Body of 2^nd unidentified child.
3. June 8. Body of unidentified victim number 3.
4. June 8. Body of unidentified victim number 4.
5. June 11. Body of Ila Mae Smith, 21, picked up by the Coast Guard near Denver Ave. fill.
6. June 16. Body of Henry George Smith, 26, recovered
7. June 16. Body of Earl Wayne Hopkins, 58, recovered.
8. June 17. Body of victim number 8 recovered.
9. June 18. Body of victim number 9 recovered.
10. June 26. Report that 10 bodies of Vanport flood victims had been recovered.
11. Oct 1, post. Body found at Vanport subsequent to Corps of Engineers report of Oct 1, 48.

Montana                     (    1)

–1  By May 24. Four deaths by May 24 noted in Washington, Oregon and Montana.[43]

Washington[44]             (    9)

–39  June. Weather Bureau, US Dept. Commerce. Climatological Data, LII/6, June 1948, 75.[45]

—  9  Blanchard tally based on locality breakouts below

—  1  Conconully, Okanogan Co., ~May 30. Drowning; male, sandbagging near bridge; bank collapse.[46]

—  1  Ione area, June 9. RR engineer; two freight train cars plunged into flood-swollen Pend Oreille Riv.[47]

—  1  Kennewick. National Weather Service. Flooding in Washington (webpage).

—  2  Portland area. “…two men drowned on the Washington side while fighting the flood.”[48]

—  1  Pine Canyon, west of Waterville, Douglas County, June 10. Drowning; male.

—  1  Richland. Electrocution; Vernal Nield, while cleaning out Dutch Mill family restaurant.[49]

—  1  Yakama area. Jimmie Encinas, 2, son of Yakima evacuees, slipped into irrigation canal.[50]

—  1  Location not noted, on or by May 24.[51]

Canada                       (    11)

–11  Alberta and British Columbia

–10  British Columbia.[52]

—  1  Fourth of July Creek, Fraser Valley, British Columbia. Drowning; Nick Zebin, 4.[53]

—  3  Lundbeck, Alberta. Freight train crewmembers which plunged through weakened bridge.[54]

—  1  Vancouver area to east, British Columbia. Drowning; male, 23, jumps into floodwater.[55]

—  1  Cayoosh Creek, ~Vernon, British Columbia, June 11. Drowning; Dr. A. P. Proctor, 45.[56]

Undetermined            (    1)   

–1  Body found lodged against Bonneville dam, Columbia River June 10.[57]

Narrative Information

McGregor: “On Memorial Day in 1948, the Columbia River, swirling fifteen feet above normal, punched a hole in a railroad embankment that served as a dike, starting a flood that would leave 18,000 people homeless…

“For eight years, the embankment had kept the river out of a newly developed 648-acre complex called Vanport, then the largest public housing project in the United States. Originally meant to be temporary, Vanport was shipbuilding-magnate Henry Kaiser’s answer to a lack of local housing in the early days of World War II, when he was importing men and women from across the United States to work in his Portland-area shipyards. At the height of the war in 1944, close to 40,000 people lived in Vanport…” (McGregor, Michael. “The Vanport Flood & Racial Change in Portland.” OR Historical Society.)

National Weather Service on Clearwater River Basis Floods of May 1948 in Idaho:

“Weather Event. The May 1948 flood in the Clearwater River Basin was caused from snowmelt combined with rainfall events. Cool weather during the early spring months kept snow cover at low elevations hanging around until the middle of May. Cooler than average temperatures and above average precipitation also occurred in the spring months. Above average temperatures began melting the snowpack the middle of May. A rain event on May 22nd caused excessive runoff and a rapid increase in streamflows across the Clearwater River Basin. Warmer weather between May 22-28 continued to increase streamflows due to snowmelt and another rain event on May 28th brought additional flooding that produced a peak on many streams and rivers on May 29. Flooding in the Clearwater River basin continued until about the 11th of June.

“Flood Event. The flood of May and June 1948 stretched from Idaho to Oregon. After flooding much of the Clearwater River Basin the water traveled downstream and combined with many other tributaries to flood the Columbia River from Washington to Oregon. The Columbia River was running at twice its average spring volume, the river and its equally overflowing tributaries overwhelmed levees and flooded numerous communities and thousands of acres of farmland in British Columbia, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. When the water receded in late June, the flood waters killed at least 50 people, caused about $102 million in damages, and spurred interest in building flood control dams on the Columbia River System (Jennifer Ott, August 30, 2013).”

National Weather Service Forecast Office, Portland, OR: “May 1948 Vanport Flood of north Portland. A city of 20,000 situated near the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers in Northwest Oregon was put under 15 feet of water in just two hours when a dike holding back the snow melt swollen Columbia River failed. The dike was thought to be impervious and well constructed. About 25 lives were lost and 10,000 homes and their contents were destroyed. Evacuation was hampered because a single road was the only route out of the disaster area. The city of Vanport ceased to exist that day. It was eventually replaced by a race track and a golf course.” (NWS Forecast Office, Portland, OR.  Oregon’s Top 10 Weather Events of 1900s.) 

Robbins: “During the winter season of 1947-48 unusually heavy snows blanketed the upland regions of the interior Northwest and the northern Rocky Mountains. Cool early-spring weather, above-normal temperatures in late April and May, and then heavy rainfall between mid-May and mid-June sent a huge volume of water rushing down streams and tributaries to the Columbia.  The Kootenai, Clark Fork, Clearwater, and Snake Rivers contributed the greatest quantity of water pouring into the Great River. When the peak of the flood reached the gauging station at The Dalles on the last day of May, more than one million cubic feet per second (cfs) roared through the Gorge into the lower Columbia….The deluge created flood conditions everywhere on the lower river and inflicted damages that placed the Northwest in the national headlines…. Fed by melting snow and heavy rains in headwater streams, the Columbia’s roiling waters swept brown and fast below Bonneville, inundating low-lying areas, destroying dikes and revetments, and ultimately threatening all flood-plain structures, including Henry Kaiser’s wartime settlement at Vanport City.

“….The wartime community was squared on four sides by dikes, a highway, and railroad embankments.  When the railroad bed gave way at 4:30 on Sunday afternoon, the breach quickly widened to 600 feet and the water came ‘in waves like breakers at the seashore.’ Sloughs between the break and the housing center absorbed some of the inrushing torrent, thereby providing valuable extra minutes for people to flee. Because of the threatening waters of the Columbia, many residents had already left; still others were out of town enjoying the beautiful Memorial Day weather. In the end only fifteen people lost their lives, a remarkably low number…elsewhere on the lower Columbia, the newspaper reported the failure of a dike below Rainier that flooded farms and dairies on the Oregon side of the river. Three small boys drowned near Portland’s Swan Island when their raft disintegrated, and two men drowned on the Washington side while fighting the flood. Portland’s small but growing airport was ‘closed down tight,’…

“When the flooding Columbia’s waters breached the railroad embankment and destroyed the community, Vanport became an instant symbol of the need for flood control. Indeed, if there was a defining moment in the immediate postwar history of Oregon and the Northwest, it should be attributed to the finicky forces of nature, the great Columbia River flood of 1948. The damage inflicted by the rampaging waters attracted impassioned editorials calling for flood-control projects; it brought the president of the United States to tour the lower Columbia country; it loosened federal purse strings to complete McNary and Hungry Horse Dams; and it provided a big boost for authorizing additional dams. There had been no similar event since the great flood of 1894, when the region’s population was much smaller.  Although the river crested well below the 1894 level, damage was much greater, causing more than $100 million in property losses.

“While the Vanport disaster was complete, it represented only part of the damage inflicted in 1948. For two weeks following the destruction of Vanport, flood conditions on the lower Columbia worsened as the continued pressure on dikes and levees threatened to inundate lowland areas. The Corps of Engineers brought in hundreds of troops for flood-control work and urged all people living behind dikes to evacuate their homes. At the peak of the effort, 2,000 military personnel and 5,000 civilians were involved in the flood-fighting effort. Levees, roadways, and dikes failed, bridges were washed away, and then on June 12 heavy rains temporarily worsened the situation….William Willingham’s history of the Portland District of the Army Corps of Engineers calls the 1948 flood ‘the greatest single disaster in the history of the Columbia River Basin.”  In addition to Vanport’s destruction, the uncontrolled waters took nearly forty lives, destroyed 5,000 buildings, and put 50,000 people out of their homes. Add to this the thousands of acres of eroded and submerged land and an additional 15,000 acres of inundated commercial and urban space, including more than 600 Portland city blocks.” (Robbins. Landscapes of Conflict: The Oregon Story, 1940-2000.  2004, pp. 67-68.)

Rubenstein: “The city of Vanport died. And modern-day Portland was born. Within minutes, floodwaters from the swollen Columbia River broke through a makeshift dike, hurling cascades of water against the flimsy walls of a wartime boomtown. Two hours later, what had been the second-largest city in Oregon was reduced to waterlogged rubble. Official records say about 15 people died, although some survivors think scores more disappeared without a trace….

“At the time of the flood, Vanport was home to about 12,600 whites, 5,000 African Americans and 900 Japanese Americans. It was easily the most diverse community in the state. And at least for a while, many prejudices were put aside….” (Rubenstein, Sura. “Flood of Change.” The Oregonian, May, 1998. Rerun 12-11-2014 by John Killen, Oregonlive.com editor.)

Skovgaard: “The morning of May 30 came, and it looked like it would be a beautiful day…. Dad wanted me to go to church with the family, but he agreed that I could go [to work]. Later, Dad told us that the conversation at church that day had been mostly about the rising water and the concern people had about flooding. The Housing Authority and the Corps of Engineers were still telling the residents that everything was fine. They distributed flyers announcing:

DIKES ARE SAFE AT PRESENT

YOU WILL BE WARNED IF NECESSARY

YOU WILL HAVE TIME TO LEAVE

DON’T GET EXCITED

“…Since it was a beautiful day, Dad had gotten up early and had walked down to the Kenton Slough Dike to see if he could talk with one of the Corps of Engineer people who were checking on the condition of the dike. When he got back, Dad told us that he had told him that everything was okay, but Mom still had the feeling that something bad was going to happen. She said she didn’t believe the Corps of Engineers or the Housing Authority notices and that she couldn’t shake off the feeling of a pending problem. I learned later that at the same time people were being told everything was all right the powers-to-be were meeting at the administration building, making plans about what to do in case there was a need for an evacuation.

“Dad dropped me off at the Number 2 Shopping Center and went off to church. When Donnie and I finished work at about three o’clock in the afternoon, I decided to walk home. I walked to the small bridge that crossed the Kenton Slough, where the ground was high enough to be out of the water. I crossed there and crawled up the side of the railroad fill and then walked north along the tracks until I came to the switching station….

“As I walked up to the switching station, I noticed two men standing on the station platform, leaning against the railing and looking out over the flooded scene in front of them. I must admit it was frightening to look out over all that water, which was flooding much of the land and buildings around the lake, especially on the north end where a lumber company, a radio station, and other businesses were located. All the buildings on the south end of the lake were now underwater, including most of the riding academy buildings. By now, the lake had risen sharply and had completely covered the road near the Columbia River. The river, the lake, and the Kenton Slough were now one large body of water, which continued to get higher as melting snow continued to feed the river, which in turn flowed into the lake and slough.

“I walked over the tracks and started down the narrow path that led through a patch of young trees that had been planted on the hillside to help prevent erosion. As I walked, I noticed streamlets of water trickling out of the hillside and running down the hill. It didn’t make me nervous, but I did think it was strange to see all that water coming out of the side of the hill. The hill was made of old timbers, rocks, and fill dirt that had been dumped high enough for the trains to travel on a level track. Years later, while looking through an old album of newspaper clippings my mother had kept, I came upon an August 8, 1951, Oregon Journal report of a federal court hearing where an engineer named John H. Suttle testified that “he had been responsible for building the lower part of the railroad fill and said the reason it failed was because the lower part of the fill was built on soft mud.” Apparently, no one had paid attention to that at the time.

“I walked across the parking lot heading toward the Fire Department sub-station at the corner of Victory and Cottonwood avenues. As I got near the sub-station I got the feeling that something or someone was coming up behind me. It was a strange feeling, and it made me stop suddenly and turn around to see who or what was there. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The hillside was moving forward. I stood there, mesmerized.

“As the hillside moved closer to the parking area, the small trees I had just passed were moving down the hill as if they were descending on an escalator. The mass moved forward onto the edge of the parking lot, swallowed up a lone car that had been left there, and moved ever so slowly toward me. It was very weird and scary. The trees started to fall down and became part of the blob coming toward me. The switching station was still on the tracks, but a space was starting to show between it and the hill. I couldn’t see the men.

“Then a massive wall of water burst through the northern part of the railroad fill and began to spread out across the cleared land. Because of the openness of the area, the water seemed to spread quickly and flatten out as if it was filling up a bathtub. As a result, I couldn’t see how deep it was becoming or where it was flowing. I could still see water raging through the side of the railroad fill, but I couldn’t see the enormity of that wall of water as it broke through the crumbling opening in the railroad fill. After the initial burst, the water seemed to level out into a mass of water that nothing could stop. The initial break in the dike was about thirty feet wide, and in minutes it expanded to a gap of between three hundred to four hundred feet, with the water from the lake and the water from the Columbia rushing into Vanport.

“I turned and saw that the switching station was now hanging in midair, as the dirt had completely crumbled away from underneath the building, leaving it dangling over an ever-widening gap. I thought I could see the men’s figures against the sky. Then the station and the tracks seemed to bounce once and then twist slightly, one way and then the other. When the tracks broke apart, the station fell into the large hole of swirling rushing water below. I thought the men were goners, but I later heard that they had been injured but had survived.

“While it seemed that everything was moving slowly, it was really only a matter of minutes before I came to my senses and realized that I had better get moving. Fortunately, when the fill broke apart the water headed toward the northern side of the project, so I had some degree of protection. After I saw the station fall, I turned and ran past the sub-station, heading home as fast as I could. I yelled that the dike had broken and floodwaters were coming and started running up Victory Avenue as fast as I could.

“I don’t know where I got the energy to continue to run, but fear can be a great motivator. I ran past people who were sitting on their porch stoops, talking to one another. Others were listening to a radio. Kids were playing catch, and people were washing their cars and enjoying a beautiful Memorial Day afternoon. Some looked up at me as I ran by, yelling that the dike had broken, but no one seemed to pay attention. I did see one man get up from his stoop and walk into his apartment, but he may have been going to get a cigarette or a beer. They may have thought that I was just a noisy teenager. Anyway, the people didn’t move.

“By the time I reached the gas station at the intersection of Lake and Victory avenues, the siren finally went off. Then all hell broke loose. People ran into their apartments to gather up personal items before heading out in their cars toward the Denver Avenue exit ramp. I didn’t look back after that. I just kept running as fast as I could, stopping and walking at times to catch my breath and then running again. As I ran past the hospital, I saw people trying to take care of the patients. I ran by the library and finally reached the Number 1 Shopping Center. Now I knew I was close to home. Finally, I reached the bridge that crossed the Bayou Slough and ran up onto the porch and charged through the apartment door, shouting, “The dike has broken and we have to get out of here!” Dad, who had been reading the Sunday paper, jumped up and said to Mom, who was folding some towels: “Come on, Netta. We have to get going!” Mom just looked at him and nodded: “I just knew something bad was going to happen today, I just knew it!” Then she began telling us what items we had to get into the car. The afternoon had exploded.

“Fortunately, Dad had parked our car right in front of the apartment, and it was a quick trip to pack the things Mom had designated into the small car trunk and backseat. Clothes, of course, were one of the first items on the list of priorities. Our little dog, Max, really got excited. He loved to go on car rides, and I told him to go out and get in the car. He immediately jumped in the front seat, ready to go. We also had a cat that had recently given birth to three kittens. Mom put the cat and her little family into a large birdcage and gave it to me to put somewhere in the backseat of the car. Our niece, little Janet, was staying with us, and Mom wrapped her up and placed her in a clothes basket. I took her out to the car and put her in the passenger side of the front seat. I knew Max would look after her, and she didn’t seem to mind being left by herself while the rest of us scurried around.

“Mom and Dad thought that he and I could drive to a family friend’s house in the Killingsworth area and drop off our cargo along with Janet, Max, and the cats. Then we would drive back to get Mom and another load of stuff. We didn’t get ten feet up the road when Dad and I looked back and saw that the water had already reached the shopping center and was starting to flow over and down the banks of the slough. People were running past us, carrying suitcases and other items, and I regretted that we had no space to offer them.

“Dad made a quick U-turn and drove back across the bridge and right up to our front door. He yelled; “Come on Netta, leave the rest, we haven’t got time! The water is rising too quickly, and it will be here any moment!” Mom grabbed a few more things to stuff into the car and climbed up on the running board next to Dad. I climbed onto the running board on the passenger side and held on as Dad drove across the bridge again and onto Victory Avenue. Thank God for cars with running boards! I looked back toward the shopping center and saw the water already moving up the street behind us.

“Water was quickly filling the western end of the slough and was beginning to flow over the opposite bank. Dad drove east on Victory, heading toward the large traffic circle at the entrance of the city. He turned to the right and started to head for the exit ramp that connected the Vanport traffic with Denver Avenue, heading south toward Kenton. The two lanes of cars headed up the ramp had come to a complete stop, and Dad backed up and drove up the entrance road instead. He said he didn’t think anyone would be coming to Vanport that day. When we reached the top of the ramp, we saw that traffic on Denver Avenue was a total mess, so Dad drove up onto the grassy side of the road and parked….

“Looking out over the western and central part of Vanport, I could see the water starting to lift up the apartment buildings and send them slamming into each other like they were bumper cars at an amusement park. Some of the buildings just broke apart, and the debris floated away, much of it drifting into the embankments in Vanport’s east side. Many of us stood and stared in awe at what was happening to our town. It was just so hard to believe. After all, we had been told that the dikes would hold and everything would be all right. The Housing Authority had sent out a flier telling us that there would be enough warning if anything happened and that everyone would get out safely….

“Then the water reached the base of the Denver Avenue embankment, and it didn’t look like it would stop rising any time soon. It looked like Vanport was now totally covered with water. More of the large apartment buildings were being lifted off their foundations and sent slamming into one another. The broken remains were being pushed up against the dikes as the water continued to rush into Vanport. The people who had tried to wait out the traffic jam on the exit ramp began to abandon their cars and started climbing up the embankment to the top of the dike and safety.

“I heard a call asking for volunteers to get into the water to form a human chain to help those who had become stranded on the other side of the exit ramp road, which was now covered with rushing water and abandoned cars. People were stranded across the street, standing on the bench seat at a bus stop, trying to stay out of the rising water. I volunteered to go. I figured the hunt for Delores and Stan could wait and went down the hill to join the men forming the chain. As I stepped into the water, I grabbed the hand of a young man who had entered the water just before I did and then reached back and extended my hand to the next man waiting to step in. As we moved forward into the water, trying to get close enough to reach the stranded people, I noticed how quickly the water was moving and swirling around our legs. An undercurrent made it hard to walk without some assistance, and I could feel the water pulling at my legs as we moved out and stood, holding firmly to each other’s hands. We were able to reach the people and provide the security they needed to get to the embankment and safety. As we started back to safety ourselves, we noticed that many of the abandoned cars were now starting to float and move around. Thankfully no one was hit by any of them, and we all exited the water in good form and headed back up the embankment.….

“The flooding waters had lifted our apartment building off of its foundation and floated it up against a large growth of trees where I used to play and left it there. The building was in pretty good shape on the outside, but on the inside everything was covered with mud and mildew rot. My mother had a solid, strongly built five-foot-long box she had used it to ship things from Minnesota to Portland. She had placed it in the dining area in the far comer, covered it with a lovely throw cloth, and used it to set things on. When we got into the apartment that day, we found that the rushing water had picked up the box, spun it around, turned it upside down, and set it back in the same spot where it had been. When we finally got the box open, however, we found there was nothing worth saving. So Mom decided to leave the box behind to be destroyed. We drove out with our escort and never looked back. It was an end to a stage in our lives, and now we had to concentrate on getting a handle on the future.”  (Skovgaard. “Memories of the 1948 Vanport Flood.” OR Historical Quarterly, Spring 2007.)

Topinka: “At one time Oregon’s second largest city, called the “Miracle City”, existed between the Columbia River on the north, the Columbia Slough on the south, Denver Avenue (Interstate 5) on the east, and the Union Pacific Railroad Tracks and Smith Lake on the west. This city was called “Vanport City”, a name derived from the two cities on either side of it, Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon. The construction of Vanport City began in 1942 as “temporary housing” for World War II workers in the shipyards, and often was referred to as “Kaiserville” after Henry Kaiser, owner of the areas largest shipyards. The city was built on the floodplain of the Columbia River and was protected by levees and dikes.
“… Henry Kaiser was importing so many workers from the eastern United States and the South to work in his shipyards that he chartered special trains to carry them directly to the Portland area. Because there was insufficient housing available in the city, new housing had to be created in a matter of months. Kaiser’s solution was to build his own city in the flood plain of the Columbia River. People began moving into Vanport on December 12, 1942, and it came to be the second largest city in Oregon, with 35,000 people, a movie theater, five schools, a library, a police station and even a college. …” [Oregon Historical Society Website, 2006]

“The Vanport City Post Office was established on April 22, 1943. On May 30, 1948, Vanport City was destroyed in the second largest flood in recorded Columbia River history. The Post Office was officially closed on June 30. Today the area which once was Vanport City is the location of the Portland International Raceway, Huron Lakes, and the Vanport Wetlands Wildlife Habitat

“1948 Vanport Flood …

“A warm May in the spring of 1948 resulted in rapid snowmelt in the Cascades and rising waters of the Columbia River. By May 25, 1948, both the Columbia and the Willamette Rivers were nearly at 23 feet, eight feet over flood stage. On May 30, 1948, at approximately 4:17 p.m., the railroad dike between Smith Lake and Vanport City gave way. Within moments a 10-foot-high wall of water rushed over lands north of the Columbia Slough and inundated the city of Vanport. Sixteen lives were lost and Vanport City was forever gone. Today, Vancouver, Washington’s Water Resources Education Center, located upstream of Ryan Point and downstream of Wintler Park, has a staff gage on its property showing the high water marks of the 1894 “Great Flood”, the 1948 “Vanport Flood”, and the 1996 Columbia River flood.” (Topinka. ColumbiaRiver Images.com. “Vanport City and the 1948 Vanport Flood.” 2008.)

Weather Bureau on Washington State, May 1948: “As a climax to the latest and wettest periods of spring weather in the state’s history — floods from the Columbia River and its tributaries either inundated or destroyed thousands of acres of productive crop land. At the close of the month flood waters were breaking through dikes into hundreds of fertile gardens and orchards, destroying lives [without noting how many], and causing great damage to crops and property in the bottom lands….” (Weather Bureau, U.S. Dept. of Commerce. Climatological Data, Vol. LII, No. 5, May 1948. p. 43.)

Weather Bureau on Washington State, June 1948: “….This was the warmest June since 1940, and the sixth warmest of record….

“Over the high watersheds of the Columbia River an unusually heavy snow pack, conserved by a late spring, was suddenly released by the abnormal warmth of early June. The River and its tributaries, already well above flood stage in late May, continued a steady rise which culminated about 12-13^th in the highest water since 1894, and in terms of monetary loss and human misery the greatest flood in the State’s history. Existing dikes were largely overflowed or gave way under the impact of the long-continued rise, flooding towns and large areas of valley farm lands. Within the State 39 deaths have been attributed to the flood, thousands of persons rendered homeless, and the total monetary loss, not yet fully compiled, appears likely to exceed $40,000,000. While all counties in the flood area suffered loss, Cowlitz, Clark and Okanogan Counties sustained the greatest damages. At the month’s close the rivers were falling slowly, but a major portion of flooded dike land remained submerged.

“During the late afternoon of the 10^th, torrential rains and some destructive hail developed over the Big Bend Section of southern Douglas County near Waterville….In Pine Canyon for a distance of 14 miles, highways, railroad beds and bridges were largely demolished. Some 22 highway and 27 railroad bridges were washed out…One man was drowned and there were several narrow escapes from death in the flash flood….” (Weather Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce. Climatological Data, Washington, Vol. LII, No. 6, June 1948, p. 75.)

Wikipedia: “Vanport was dramatically destroyed at 4:05 p.m. on May 30, 1948, when a 200 ft (61 m) section of the dike holding back the Columbia River collapsed during a flood, killing 15. The city was underwater by nightfall leaving its inhabitants homeless. The Vanport Extension Center refused to close after this disaster and quickly reopened in downtown Portland. Dubbed by a national magazine “The College that Wouldn’t Die,” it became present-day Portland State University.”  (Wikipedia. “Vanport City, Oregon.”)

Newspapers

May 21: “Spokane, May 21 (AP)–Robert McComb, Spokane weather bureau forecaster, predicted today that the Kootenai river would go over the top of 31-foot dikes at Bonners Ferry, Ida., ‘within the next few days.’ The river rose four and one-half feet to a stage of 27 feet in the 24 hours ending at 7, a.m., he said. The level is expected to be about 30 feet tomorrow morning, he said. Cold weather has delayed melting of an unusually heavy mountain snow pack this spring. Warm weather of the past few days is expected to continue for several days and speed up the melting.

“The dikes protecting Bonners Ferry and thousands of acres of farm land are threatened almost annually by high water, but the danger of a flood this year is likely to be greater than usual.” (AP. “Flood Predicted For North Idaho.” Twin Falls Times News, ID, 5-21-1948, p. 1.)

May 22: “Seattle, May 22 — (AP) — Rising rivers in four northwest states created tensions today in areas threatened by floods. Northern Idaho and western Montana were first to feel the force of heavy runoffs from mountain snow packs, but Washington and Oregon residents also were watching the river gauges.

“Reports from St. Regis, Mnt., said the town was partially under water and the south fork of the Clark Fork river was threatening a bridge on U.S. highway No. 10. The town is 30 miles east of the Idaho-Montana line. In Missoula, Mont., some lowlands and roads were flooded and water poured into basements in some neighborhoods as the Missoula river reached its highest stage since the 1908 flood. The river still was rising. Bonners Ferry, Idaho, residents watched the Kootenai river creep an inch an hour toward to top of 31-foot dikes guarding the town.

“Floods near Ellensburg, Wash. Knocked out six bridges and closed several county roads. A cloudburst at Davenport, Wash., left water six to 12 inches deep in the main street, disrupted power facilities for 30 minutes and took a heavy erosion toll in wheat fields.” (Associated Press. “Floods Threaten Northwest States.” Lethbridge Herald, Canada, 5-22-1948, p. 10.)

May 23: “Swollen rivers flooded scattered portions of the Pacific northwest yesterday and the threat of greater damage hung over the area. In the whole area drained by the mighty Columbia river and its tributaries rain and melting snow kept adding to the runoff flow. Floods, washouts and slides closed several main highways. Lower sections of St. Regis and Missoula, Mont., were under water as the Clark Fork river rose six inches in one day. At St. Maries 25 families moved out of the lowlands as a leaking dike threatened to break.

“Army engineers arrived at Bonners Ferry to help guard against a major flood of the Kootenai river. Hundreds of workers were building up low sections of a dike around the area to a level of 34 feet. The Kootenai rose to 29.3 feet during the afternoon and was climbing slowly.” (Associated Press. “Swollen Streams Flood Numerous Northwest Areas.” Twin Falls Times News, ID, 5-23-1948, p. 2.)

May 24: “The Kootenai river, swollen to its highest record level, burst through three dikes near Bonners Ferry, Monday [May 24] as a series of spring floods claimed four lives in Washington, Montana and Oregon. All able-bodied men were ordered to report to the Bonners Ferry courthouse for emergency duty as the Kootenai swirled through the crumbled embankments and threatened to flood the lower part of the town. The river swept away sandbagged dikes and inundated 7,500 acres of rich farmland. Three reclamation districts, comprising some of the most fertile agricultural areas in northern Idaho, were flooded.

“The Kootenai reached 32.5 feet at 10 a.m. and still was rising. A logging dam collapsed near Wardner, B.C., yesterday, helping to swell the river at its record height. Farm buildings in the flooded districts had water up to their eaves.

“The rampaging Mark creek, 75 miles north of Bonners Ferry, drove 150 residents of Kimberly, B.C., and five small neighboring communities from their homes. Volunteer workmen at St. Maries, strengthened two dikes that threatened to give way before the swollen St. Joe river and Cherry creek.

“Seventy-five families were evacuated near Kalispell, Mont., and Columbia Falls, Mont., as the flooding Flathead rose two feet within 24 hours….” (United Press. “Raging River Breaks Dike on Kootenai.” Twin Falls Times News, ID, 5-24-1948, p. 1.)

May 25: “Portland, Ore., May 25. — (U.P.) — Turbulent floodwaters Tuesday burst the banks and sandbagged levees of Pacific northwest rivers, swollen by fast-melting snows along their mountain tributaries.

“Nick Zebin, 4, drowned in Fourth of July creek in the Fraser valley of British Columbia, bringing the known flood death toll to five. An 18-year-old youth, drowned in the Snake river 35 miles south of Lewiston, Idaho, while swimming to an island to moor his boat. Two men drowned near The Dalles, Ore., when their tugboat sank in the Columbia river. The Columbia also claimed the life of a 4-year-old boy near Portland.

“The Kootenai river at Bonners Ferry, Idaho, burst two more dikes and flooded an additional 6,000 acres, bringing the total of flooded fertile farmlands to nearly 15,000 acres….” (United Press. “Toll of Floods in Northwest Mounts to Five.” Billings Gazette, MT, 5-26-1948, p. 1.)

May 25: “Three men and a 4-year-old boy were missing today in the flood-swept Pacific northwest as swollen rivers continued to pour over their banks in some areas. The Clearwater river in north central Idaho began to recede during the day but streams in other regions of that state, in Washington, Montana, British Columbia and Oregon remained at flood stage.

“More than 8,000 acres of rich farm land near Bonners Ferry were inundated by the Kootenai river which raced through six breaks in a 34 foot dam and the water was up to the eaves of some farm buildings and any further breaches in the barriers threatened to flood 3,000 more acres.

“A 4-year-old boy vanished off the top of a house boat in the Columbia river near Portland, the same area in which a tug boat with two men disappeared Sunday [May 23]. A youth tried to swim ashore from a row boat on Snake river and is missing. Reports that he reached an island started an aerial search but he was not found.

“The Catherine river near La Grande, Ore., was at its highest level in 48 years and farmers hurriedly constructed dikes to protect their land. The Oregon coastal region also was beginning to feel the effect of torrents pouring into the Columbia river from tributaries upstream.

“The Clark Fork river at St. Regis, Mont., was at 20.6 feet, a foot higher than the previous high in 1919.” (AP. “Three Men and Boy Missing in Floods in Northwest Area.” Twin Falls Times-News, ID, 5-25-1948, p. 1.)

May 26: “A pair of Idaho rivers punched holes in their dikes late yesterday s a hot sun fed snow water to flooding streams in the northwest and Canada. Murky floodwater swirled across thousands of acres of farmland as residents retreated to higher ground with their livestock and possessions. Raging rivers in northern Idaho and three Canadian provinces left a trail of broken dikes as they swelled the Columbia on the way to the ocean. Already through the dikes in six districts, the Kootenai River in northern Idaho broke through in three more places yesterday to flood a total of more than 15,000 acres….Pressure taken off by the added breaks, had lowered the river more than a foot late last night as the flood ran into the low farmland areas.

“Another 100 Army engineers from Fort Lewis, Wash., were on their way last night to St. Maries, Idaho, to help townsmen battle the swollen St. Joe River. More than 1000 acres of farmland were flooded there when the dike gave way in one place. Approximately 2000 acres were already under water. Fifty families had been evacuated from dangerous areas. In northeastern Oregon, about 1000 acres of wheat was washed out by the waters of Catherine Creek that spread over 10,000 acres….” (AP. “Melting Snow Floods Streams in Northwest.” Long Beach Press-Telegram, CA, 5-26-1948, p. 5.)

May 27: “Thousands of persons fled their homes in the Richland-Pasco-Kennewick area of eastern Washington today as floodwaters lapped over dikes, flooded several trailer camps and threatened numerous others. Estimates of the number of evacuated persons varied widely. Benton County Sheriff Harry Cochrane reported earlier that 20,000 persons would be forced to move. Later reports by the sheriff’s office, Kennewick City police and state patrol placed th figure closer to 5000. The exodus covered an eight-mile strip from Pasco to the mouth of the Yakima River. Both the Yakima and Columbia Rivers are at flood stage. A cloudburst above Yakima last night increased the anxiety of river-basin residents….

Meanwhile the death toll in the flooded Pacific northwest rose to seven as swollen rivers remained over the flood stage and gave little signs of receding….

“Temperatures soared to near 90, melting snow high in the mountains and adding more water to the rivers….

“The Columbia reached 23.4 feet at Vancouver, Wash., its highest stage in 15 years.

“Electric power failed generally throughout the Pacific northwest last night as a severe lightning storm struck transmission lines and broke up the interlocked regional power pool….” (AP. “Thousands Flee Columbia’s Floodwaters, Seven Perish.” Long Beach Press-Telegram, CA, 5-27-1948, p. 1.)

May 28: “Portland, Ore. (U.P.) — Portland braced today for its worst flood in 50 years as rivers fed by mountain snows forced 10,000 persons from their homes and claimed 14 lives throughout the Pacific Northwest.

“Roads in the flood areas of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia were busy with refugees, their personal possessions piled high on automobiles, trucks, carts or any other transportation they could muster. Three thousand persons fled in what amounted to a mass migration from a dozen communities in the Fraser valley of British Columbia. Other thousands fled from lowlands within a vast arc sweeping from Canada, through Idaho and westward into Oregon.

“The rushing water weakened a bridge near Lundbeck, Alta.,[58] and three crew members drowned when a freight train plunged through into the stream.

“A we-year-old man stared fixedly at a rising creek 180 miles east of Vancouver. ‘The water fascinates me,’ he told other bystanders. Then he jumped into the stream and was drowned.

“The Columbia, swell by tumbling tributaries, was sending a giant crest down toward western Oregon.” (United Press. “Flood Death Toll Mounting. “Flood Death Toll Mounting.” Oxnard Press-Courier, CA, 5-28-1948, p. 5.)

May 29: “Portland, Ore., May 29. (UP). Pacific Northwest floodwaters edged higher today under the impact of warm rains that melted mountain-top snows and sent them plunging into swollen rivers of the Columbia system where $30,000,000 damage was counted and 20,000 persons made homeless. Both the Columbia and the Willamette Rivers rose relentlessly in the Portland-Vancouver area. River forecasters said there was no sign that either city would be spared the predicted 30-feet levels, 15 feet over flood stage.

“The floods took another life and made hundreds more homeless tonight as another river overflowed its banks in northeast Washington. Si Walker, 70, Concully [Conconully], Wash, was swept away in swollen Salmon Creek near his home. Walker plunged into the creek after a bridge on which he was crossing collapsed.

“Some 500 persons were driven from their homes at Twisp, Wash., 30 miles west of her, after the rampaging Methow River surged over its banks into the fertile Methow Valley.

“The death toll stood at 16.

“Col. O. E. Walsh, Portland district Army engineer, estimated damage might go higher if turbulent streams in Washington, British Columbia, Oregon, Idaho and Montana continue their rise. He said the northwest was being dealt one of the heaviest economic blows in its history.

“Rains averaging one-half to one inch swamped northeastern Washington and northern Idaho, bringing a Weather Bureau warning of heavy melting of remaining snows.

“Gov. C. A. Robins of Idaho proclaimed a state of emergency in the 10 northern Idaho counties, hard-hit by the worst flood in half a century. The National Guard was called out in Washington and the provincial militia was called out to aid refugees in the flooded Fraser Valley. Coast Guardsmen were ordered into Portland to handle the expected crises.

“Slides, washouts and rain-softened roadbeds isolated large areas and forced railroads to reroute trains. A Northern Pacific train was derailed at Ellensburg, Wash., holding up both Northern Pacific and Great Northern traffic. The rear truck of the observation car on the Chicago-Seattle train jumped the track as the streamliner hit an undermined section of roadbed.

“The Washington State Patrol warned motorists to stay off all highways except in cases of dire emergencies.

“Army engineers said they planned to open dikes between Deer Island and Goble, 38 miles downstream from Portland, Sunday to relieve flood pressure on the Portland area. The kikes already were leaking in the nearby Clatskanie area.

“A 1000-foot section of the mainline Great Northern Railroad track washed out near Monitor, Wash.

“Floodwaters isolated the town of Conconully in eastern Washington. About 200 persons were in the town without communication, but McChord Field said its air rescue units would drop supplies and rafts there as soon as weather cleared.

“Vancouver, M.C., was without direct rail connection wit eastern Canada. Both the Canadian Pacific and the Canadian National Railways’ lines were cut by floods.

“Water was 15 feet deep in residential sections of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, and 2 feet deep in some stores on the lower part of the town’s main street.

“Weary Army troops, city firemen and volunteers gave up hope of saving the only unflooded district at St. Maries, Idaho, where Gov. Robins arrived to assist personally in the flood battle. Heavy rains deluged the already flooded farmlands in the area of the St. Joe River, which rose to a record 39.15 feet — up one-half foot from yesterday. Some volunteer workers dropped in their tracks from fatigue, Mayor B. E. Lewis said.

“Schools were closed at Ellensburg, Wash., when the heaviest 24-hour May rain on recorded sent the Yakima River spilling into farmlands and across highways. The Kootenai River virtually completed its conquest of the mountain-girded Kootenai Valley, one of the richest farming sections in the northwest.

“A desperate crew of businessmen, homeowners, construction workers and National Guardsmen fought a losing battle against the advance of the Columbia at Kennewick, Wash., near the Hanford atomic plant. Hanford workers were getting to their jobs across the river, but U.S. Highway 410 connecting Kennewick, Pasco and Richland was closed. The Kennewick area faced the disheartening prospect of a predicted river rise of two feet a day for the next three days.

“Portland, the largest metropolitan area in the path of the oncoming flood crest, was getting prepared for the worst as the Columbia backed up into the Willamette River. Muddy floodwaters lapped within a foot of the Portland harbor seawall, closed the Morrison bridge and crept onto trackage at the north end of the Union Pacific freight yards. The steel bridge which carries main railroad tracks across the Willamette was barely 15 inches above water.

“At one spot 10 miles east of Portland the Columbia spread out seven miles wide, inundating thousands of acres of farm and dairy land. The Vancouver, Wash., Aluminum Company of America plant, largest on the Pacific Coast, was cut off from Vancouver proper, but workers got to their jobs through flooded areas in busses. Arrangements were made for rowboats, if necessary.

“The Spokane River seeped into downtown Spokane stores and the city hall. Pumps were manned to prevent further flooding.

“A sudden flooding of Burke Canyon in North Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene mining district tore apart a dozen homes whose occupants already were evacuated. Mining operations were suspended at the Star and Sherman mines while miners joined volunteer sandbagging crews.

“Giant Grand Coulee Dam had 18-feet of water flowing overs its gates. Both Grand Coulee and Bonneville, prime producers of northwest power, reported power was off 30 per cent. High waters cut down the ‘head,’ or distance the water falls through pen-stocks, thus reducing the efficiency of generators. Voltage sagged in Portland for several hours….

“Converging waters of the swollen Snake and Clearwater Rivers threatened tonight to drive 2000 persons from their homes in Lewiston, Ida. Gov. Robins called on the Army engineers and the Red Cross for immediate aid in the hard-pressed battle for Lewiston.” (UP. “Rains Hit High Snowfields, Swell Northwest Torrents.” Long Beach Press-Telegram, CA, 5-30-1948, pp. 1 &4.)

May 31: “Red Cross Calls Disaster Worst in Pacific Coast History; 30,000 Face Evacuation in Portland Area Alone; One-Fourth of Village Swept Away; Water is Still Rising. [sub-headline]

“By The Associated Press. An unknown number of persons living in the war-built Vanport housing center in Portland, Ore., were drowned Sunday when a wall of water burst through a protective dike surrounding the low-lying area of 18,500 persons. Hundreds of men, women and children were swept off their feet as the water burst unexpectedly into the west edge of the sprawling community. Mothers saw their children — playing in the yards — carried away by the water. Many slipped from the grasps of their parents as they dashed madly for upper floors of their apartment houses….

“At the same time, the bulging Columbia river and its tributaries spread new destruction for 100 miles down through central Washington state as the death toll climbed to 17….

“As refugees continued to stream out of desolate British Columbia areas, Federal Trade Minister Howe termed the toll taken by the waters a ‘national disaster’.” (Associated Press. “Pacific Northwest Flood Toll At 17,” Kokomo Tribune, IN, 5-3-1948, p. 1.)

May 31, NYT: The Rest of the Flooding: “In Okanogan County of Washington State 300 persons were driven from their homes in Omak and Okanogan, while workers were holding their own against the waters in Winthrop, Twist and Tonasket. In Kennewick a thousand inhabitants were driven from their homes and business places were evacuated. In Idaho, where Governor Robins proclaimed a state of emergency, water ran in the streets of Lewiston and Orofino. A wave of water burst into the war-build Vanport community of 18,500 persons in North Portland, Ore., and 30,000 persons, according to the Red Cross, face evacuation in the Portland area.  Many were feared to have been drowned….

[Vanport] “Boat crews working under floodlights on the pool which covers the town area, reported that bodies of drowned victims were found in heaps of broken houses. The captain of one boat crews said he counted five bodies in one room. Another said he knew of two dead in one house. One woman was brought dead to a hospital. Portland’s hospitals were crowded with injured, most with broken bones.

“Thousands escaped by swimming, wading, running, tugging themselves along ropes of human chains to the safety of dikes and highway and railroad embankments circling the community.  When the water first swirled across Vanport City residents in the second floors believed they were safe, but as the level rose the waters jerked the buildings loose and swirled them around like match-boxes. Some crumbled. Others turned over. Those that remained up-right floated across the flooding area and smashed into others, folding up like accordions in the crush. From the air the great housing community looked like a child’s toy village crushed by a giant foot.  The houses lay crushed at one end of the town….The people fled as they were. Mothers tossed their youngsters from windows to rescuers beneath. Men and women saw their children swept away from their grasp. An Associated Press staff reporter on the scene said it was a madhouse of people trying to save their lives, their families and their goods. Governor John Hall declared a state of limited emergency and sent National Guard units to the area.

“A few hours earlier a dike burst at Rainier, Ore., just west of Portland, and water poured through a sixty-foot gap into about 1,500 acres where an estimated 200 persons reside.  

“The Columbia had risen rapidly in the Portland area as the flood swept seaward from the upper valley area that embraces the three Pacific Northwest states and two Canadian provinces….The break in the Portland area brought the full impact of the region’s worst flood in 54 years to the doorstep of the only major metropolitan area in its path….

“In San Francisco Pacific area headquarters of the Red Cross…stated that 650 persons had been moved from their homes in the area of Vancouver, Wash.  It was ready to house flood victims in schools, armories and tent cities. In Okanogan County, the village of Conconully was wrecked.  Waters of Salmon Creek, fed by the melting of deep snows in the mountains and heavy rains, hit the town. Sheriffs’ officers said 25 per cent of its buildings were upset or heavily damaged. One of the 200 residents died in the river.  He was helping to sandbag the approaches of a bridge and was catapulted into the river when the bank gave way. Two thousand others were estimated homeless in Okanogan County. Sheriff’s officers said all roads into the Okanogan Valley were either impassable or studded with detour signs. All of the Methow Valley was described as impassible.  Several bridges in the county were reported washed out or threatened….

“The ten northern Idaho counties, where Governor C.A. Robins proclaimed a state of emergency, also were hard hit. Virtually the entire diking system guarding more than 30,000 acres of rich farm land at Bonners Ferry was destroyed. The business district of the city itself was flooded to a depth of two feet. Water also ran is some of the streets of Lewiston and Orofino, Idaho…”  (NYT. “Deaths Are Reported; Oregon and Idaho Communities Inundated by Floods; Flood in Oregon Hits Wartime City,” 5-31-1948, p. 1.) 

May 31:  “Portland, Ore. May 31 – Floods which have left at least 60,000 persons homeless and caused an estimated $75,000,000 damage forced new evacuations in a score of Washington and Oregon cities tonight and hampered the search for possible dead in the ruins of Vanport. A large area of industrial Portland was flooded by the cresting Willamette River. In mid-afternoon authorities ordered the evacuation of 2,000 homes along Columbia Boulevard, in the heart of  North Portland. Ten thousand persons already had been evacuated in the Portland metropolitan area, in addition to Vanport’s almost 19,000.

“The Denver Avenue dike in North Portland broke late tonight and Columbia River flood waters poured through. One hundred volunteer workers who had been sandbagging the dike ran for safety. The waters spread toward Vanport, the Portland Meadows race track, the Portland Amphitheatre, two auto courts and a number of private residences which had been evacuated….

“As the Columbia rose toward a 30.5 foot crest expected tomorrow night at its confluence with the Willamette, north of Portland, it crumbled dikes and invaded the outskirts of The Dalles, ninety miles upstream. The cresting Lewis River broke through a dike at Woodland, Wash., forty miles north of Portland, and sent flood waters into the city. The Kalama River flooded Kalama, Wash., five miles north of Woodland. Woodland’s 1,500 reidents were evacuated, and 1,200 moved out of Kalama.

“Evacuation also started at flood-threatened South Kelso, Wash., where the Coweeman rose to a dangerous level. National Guardsmen helped volunteers in sandbagging weakening dikes. About 2,000 residents fled to Kelso. Evacuations were also under way at Rainier, Ore.; Umatilla, Ore., and Kennwick, Wash….Hundreds of Portland and other Oregon residents were stranded in Vancouver, Wash., when the big interstate bridge over the Columbia was declared unsafe for travel. Rail traffic between the cities was halted by water that covered mainline tracks….”  (NYT.  “Northwest Flood Hits More Towns; Loss at $75,000,000,” 6-1-1948.)

May 31: “Portland, Ore., May 31 – A dead city, listed on the map as Vanport, bustling until late yesterday afternoon with a post-war population of 18,500, lay buried today under the yellow, muddy waters of the Columbia River. Witnesses told of ‘a theatre full of children,’ of ‘a hospital filled with patients,’ of ‘whole families trapped in their homes’ when a torrent poured through a breach in the railroad embankment to the west of the war-build city…

“Only the rooftops of scores of apartment buildings, bunched crazily in the one square-mile housing development that grew from nothing to a city of 42,000 in the wartime shipbuilding era, were discernible from the air. Smashed and abandoned buildings seemed to be all that was left of the settlement on Portland’s northern boundary which had been hurriedly thrown up to provide homes for workers in the war shipyards of Portland and neighboring Vancouver, Wash., across the Columbia. The water within the breached railroad embankment on the west, the severed Denver Avenue approach to the Interstate Bridge on the east, a dike shutting out the Columbia on the north and another dike holding back the waters of Columbia Slough on the south, was still until late tonight. Then a hole opened in the dike to the east and two-story apartment buildings from Vanport floated through and sailed off into the meadows like ships. Relief workers feared that the twelve-foot depth of the water hid many a family tragedy….

“Some of the wooden structures were broken up like match sticks when the swiftly rising waters smashed like match sticks when the swiftly rising waters smashed them against one another.  Some were piled together in the southeast sector, driven there by waters rushing in through the western break…..

“Coast Guardsmen kept all private boats away from the newly formed ‘Vanport Lake’ to prevent looting and protect patrol boats.

“In the absence of an official explanation for the dike break which turned Vanport into a scene of desolation without parallel in Pacific Northwest floods, Roy Taylor, assistant chief maintenance man of the Portland Housing Authority for Vanport, advanced a theory. He said that the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway embankment through which the flood waters poured had been built with an old trestle in its core. This trestle doubtless rotted, he added, and permitted holes to develop in the embankment itself. Albert J. Witchel of Vancouver, retired chief engineer of the railway company, confirmed the existence of the trestle, built in 1907. He said that about twenty years later the embankment was made by filling in over the trestle. He voiced doubt, however, that this had contributed to the disaster. Although it was the railroad’s responsibility to maintain the embankment, some officials contended that it was the over-all job of the Army engineers to attest to the soundness of the embankment.

“Vanport was built on a flood plain which, before the erection of the dikes, was covered with water year after year. The city rose almost in months on the 650-acre waste plot to become Oregon’s second largest city. Ground was broken September 1, 1942, and by the following July the city boasted 9,914 family units in 700 apartment buildings put up at a cost of $26,000,000.

“At the end of the war, when shipyard families began going ‘back home,’ demolition squads moved in and sent many of the buildings to areas short of housing. But war veterans came in and took up the slack. Vanport College opened in the city with an enrollment of more than 1,200 as part of the state’s higher education system and Vanport took on the air of a permanent settlement.

“While witnesses repeated over and over today the stories of panic and confusion which followed the blowing of a siren late yesterday afternoon as a signal that Vanport was in danger, some spoke bitterly of the distribution of a mimeographed letter earlier in the day. It was a message from the housing authority stating that the dikes ‘are safe at present,’ that ‘barring unforeseen developments’ the community was in no danger, that residents would be ‘warned if necessary,’ that they should not get excited but collect their valuables, money, papers and jewelry, wear serviceable clothing and pack essential belongings in a small bag. 

“Those in homes near the embankment had virtually no time to get away after the siren sounded.  Vanport was a lost city within an hour. Many lost all of their possessions.

“’I felt there was danger, but had no idea anything like this would happen,’ said Henry J. Detloff, vice chairman of the housing authority. ‘We relied on the maintenance crews to keep us posted’.” (NYT.  “Lake That Once Was a City Combed Vainly for Any Dead,” 6-1-1948, p1.) 

June 1: “Portland, Ore. (U.P.) — Thousands of civilians fled areas stretching 120 miles along both sides of the Columbia river in an Army sponsored mass evacuation today as the Pacific northwest flood situation reached the proportions of a national calamity….It was estimated unofficially that 30,000 were affected by the order, bringing the total of flood refugees and temporarily displaced persons in Washington, British Columbia, Idaho, Oregon and Montana to about 90,000. The mass evacuation was called at midnight Monday by Col. Ob. B. Walsh, district engineer of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and affected 43 drainage districts from the mouth of the Sandy river, 12 miles east of Portland, to the mouth of the Columbia at Astoria, 168 miles west of Portland.

“While the death toll is expected to run into scores or hundreds there is no accurate report of the numbers of dead and injured….

“Washington (U.P.) — President Truman today ordered a full mobilization of federal relief sources to help alleviate hardship and suffering caused by floods in the Pacific Northwest….

“Vanport City, Ore. (U.P.) — Authorities were mystified because not a single body had been found thus far in the wreckage of the nation’s largest housing project….Eyewitnesses maintained there would be a heavy death toll among the 19,000 inhabitants. Sheriff Martin Pratt said a thorough search might not be possible for weeks….” (Corona Daily Independent, CA. “Flood Nears Proportions of National Calamity.” 6-1-1948, p. 1.)

June 2: “Portland, June 2 — (AP)….While Portland was caring for 20,000 made homeless in Sunday’s Vanport disaster — from which there still have been no bodies recovered — and others in the north Portland area, South Kelso residents tried to go home. A mounted horse patrol kept them back from the lands and houses which still might go under…” (Associated Press. “Dike Workers Battle Flood Waters.” The Montana Standard, 6-3-1948, p. 1.)

June 3: “Portland, Ore., June 3, (INS). A new crest rolled down the raging Columbia river tonight as the army engineers declared the lower river an emergency area for the next 10 days. The river will begin rising at Portland and continue at least through Monday. The prediction was made by Elmer Fisher, river forecaster for the weather bureau, who said the increase will result from a six inch rise in the Snake river of Idaho, one of the Columbia’s biggest tributaries….” (INS. “Flood Area Emergency Declared…” Long Beach Independent, CA, 6-4-1948, p. 1.)

Photo caption: “Portland Dep. Coroner Myron Costley and Slabs for Vanport’s Dead. But 80 Hours after Flood Swept the City No Fatalities were Reported.” (Long Beach Independent, CA, 6-4-1948, p. 12.)

June 5: “Portland, Ore., June 5. — (AP)….Twenty-six dead. The city of Vanport, drowned by the blowout of a Columbia dike Memorial Day, yielded its first bodies last night — both children torn by the boiling waters from the arms of their fleeing parents….” (AP. “Columbia Flood Menace Reduced.” Oakland Tribune, CA. 6-5-1948, p. 1.)

June 5: “Portland, Ore., June 5. — (AP) — A demand for a Grand Jury and Congressional investigation of the Vanport disaster came today from a citizens’ committee here. The committee, organized by the Vanport Tenants’ league, also criticized the Portland Housing Authority ‘for failure to evacuate or properly warn residents.’ The committee also opposed use of tents and trailers for emergency housing. It called for resignation of the Housing Authority Commissioners and appointment of a new board to obtain permanent low-rent housing; cash grants to all who suffered non-insured property loss; compensation to survivors where loss of life is involved; requisition of hotels and auto-courts at Federal and State expense for emergency housing.” (AP. “Vanport Group Asks Grand Jury Probe.” Oakland Tribune, CA, 6-6-1948, p. 2.)

June 6: “Portland, Ore.,  June 6 (AP) – A new crisis arose today along the lower Columbia River Valley as crest waters of a new flood battered the levees already weakened in a week of high water. Army engineers reported the main earthworks guarding the industrial heart of the lower valley were still holding, but added that the 120-mile diked sector from Portland to the Pacific would remain a critical area for several days. A Government river forecaster said the new crest pounding toward the Portland-Vancouver, Wash., area would come ‘within a hair’ of the earlier peak of 30.3 feet.

“The Red Cross expressed hope that its list of fifty-two persons missing from inundated Vanport would be revised downward….The figure rose suddenly hours after the agency had put it at thirteen. All but seven of the fifty-two were children….

“In San Francisco, the Red Cross announced that 47,981 persons had been left homeless by the Northwest floods. Pacific area Red Cross headquarters said Oregon was hardest hit, with 26,000 homeless. Washington had 17,000 homeless and Idaho 1,626. No homes were destroyed in Montana. 

“The death toll for the Pacific Northwest in this most devastating flare-up by the Columbia and Canada’s Fraser River stood at twenty-six. Vanport, drowned war housing project of 18,700, has yielded two bodies.” (New York Times. “Portland Braces For Second Flood,” 6-7-1948.)

June 7: “Portland, Ore., June 7. — (AP) — A third flood was forming in the Columbia River today, just as the Army called in a fresh engineering command to battle the still raging second crest. The U.S. Weather Bureau warned this morning that high temperatures in the Columbia River’s headwaters in the Canadian Rockies are starting another freshet. ‘We will have high waters with us quite a while,’ warned River Forecaster Elmer Fisher. ‘For three weeks, anyway. He said the Columbia River, which crested here at 29.7 feet yesterday, would fall a few inches during the next two days and then rise once more. He forecast a Thursday and Friday level of 29.5 feet — and he could not say whether it might rise still higher afterward. The news came grimly to the men already struggling desperately to hold 100 miles of weakening dikes from Portland to the sea….

“Thermometers soared to seasonal highs throughout the Northwest Sunday — 90 degrees and above in the mountains where the snowpack melted fast and streamed down to add new waters to tributaries of the Columbia. And this was the day of the season’s highest tide — 9 feet. It churned upriver this morning and crashed into the flood current in the critical lower river area. The collision sent the water level higher, increased the gnawing on ever-softening levee walls.” (Associated Press. “Third Columbia Flood Forms.” Oakland Tribune, CA, 6-7-1948, p. 1.)

June 8: “Portland, Ore., June 8 (AP) — Two more bodies were taken from the water over flood-destroyed Vanport today. They increased to four the number of known dead in the Memorial Day disaster and to 29 the toll throughout the Pacific Northwest in its three weeks of flood. The two bodies were not immediately identified.

“There was still no information as to the possible number of dead at Vanport. The Red Cross, which last night listed 745 as unaccounted for, today revised the total to 545. It said 170 persons called to report they were safe after the list was issued. The Red Cross said many Vanport residents still were expected to register for the first time, making a further deep slash in the number unaccounted for.

“While the search for the dead went on, the Columbia and Fraser rivers moved their third flood crest downriver today. Weary sandbag battalions defended battered American and Canadian dikes were reinforced for three more weeks of siege.

“Scorching weather throughout the Pacific Northwest sent tons of water from fast-melting mountain snow into the two rampaging river systems. The Kootenay River, one of many feeding the Columbia, crashed through another dike in Canada. Water poured over 8000 acres of rich farmland near Creston, B.C., 350 miles east of Vancouver….” (AP. “More Bodies Recovered in Flood Area.” Berkeley Daily Gazette, CA, 6-8-1948, p. 1.)

June 9: “Portland, Ore., June 9 (AP) — The Columbia and Fraser Rivers cut deeper today into soggy dikes on the Pacific Northwest’s far-flung flood front. The situation grew more critical by the hour. A new breakthrough in the lower valley of the Columbia, drowned Puget Island. Other earthen barriers along the swollen river’s 100-mile stretch run from Portland to the Pacific were getting softer, saturated by 21 days of watery assault. US Army engineers called their condition ‘very critical.’….” (Associated Press. “Flood Waters Batter Dikes in Northwest.” Berkeley Daily Gazette, CA, 6-9-1048, p. 1.)

June 10: “Portland, Ore., June 10. (A.P.). Flash floods and high tides heaped new threats on the water-weary Pacific northwest today. The swollen Columbia and Fraser Rivers built their three-week flood siege toward new heights. Three cloudbursts and a five-hour downpour sent tons of water hurtling into the raging Columbia and more farmland was added to some 650 square miles already under water. The weather forecast: Showers and thunder-showers….

“The death toll for 22 days of flood was 32 — upped two by the drowning yesterday of a 10-year-old boy and a railroad division engineer. The Red Cross in Portland said 335 still were unaccounted for in the Memorial Day flooding of Vanport…and it issued a ‘critical list’ of 121 names. The relief agency said it has exhausted all means — relatives and Vanport neighbors — of locating the 121….

“Two cloudburst washed Washington areas draining into the Columbia. One, near Spokane in the eastern part of the state late yesterday, sent a five-foot wall of water over a highway, flooded homes and devastated wheat fields and gardens. Another struck last night in the lower Yakima Valley in south-central Washington from Outlook to Pasco, near the huge Hanford Plutonium Works. Streets in Sunnyside, hardest-hit town, were flooded quickly….” (AP. “Cloudbursts, Tides Pour New Woe on Flooded Northwest.” Long Beach Press-Telegram, CA, 6-10-1948, p1.)

June 11: “Portland, Ore., June 11 (AP) – Fresh disaster struck the flood-weary Pacific Northwest today. As President Truman stopped off to visit the devastated Vanport area en route to Berkeley, Calif., these developments added to the destruction wrought by the three-week rampage of the flood waters:

“The Columbia River’s flood waters ripped out a dike and swept over Portland’s $6,500,000 airport. Torrential rains washed out highways in Central Oregon and Washington. Three more persons drowned and a fourth body was recovered, raising the toll of known dead to thirty-seven.

“Wenatchee’s 12,000 residents had only a single day’s water supply after the Columbia River buckled the floor of that central Washington city’s pumping plant.

“A cloudburst flooded Yakima streets to business house doors.

“Fifty-five hundred residents of Sumas Prairie in British Columbia were ordered to flee as Fraser River dikes weakened.

“Today’s break-through in a slough levee branching off from the Columbia sent water surging eastward in a ten-mile lowland strip. In it, in addition to the airport, are Alderwood and Riverside Country Clubs, Broadmoor and Colwood public golf courses, Blue Lake resort, and scores of farms producing tulip and gladioli bulbs and garden truck. 

“Army engineers said the water was spreading out and rising slowly toward a secondary dike protecting the $43,000,000 Reynolds Metals Company aluminum plant at Troutdale.” (New York Times. “Flood Waters Cover Portland’s Airport,” 6-12-1948, p. 29.) 

June 12: “Portland, Ore., June 12. — (AP)….In Portland [day before], President Truman signed a $10,000,000 emergency housing bill that had been rushed through Congress. Meanwhile, the toll for the two nations mounted to 38 known dead. Five new victims were added yesterday. One was from Vanport, increasing to five the number of bodies recovered from the smashed war housing project.” (AP. “New Flood Threats in Oregon Area.” Oakland Tribune, CA, 6-12-1948, p. 1.)

June 13: “Portland, Ore., June 13 (AP) – The Columbia River today pushed its third crest in the lower valley to above the flood level that smashed the city of Vanport two weeks ago. The river menace will remain for several weeks in the flood stricken valley.

“Levees still holding the river from scattered dry sectors in the heart of the heavily populated rural and industrial lower valley are under their closest guard. The flood danger is aimed today at another backwater dike in northeast Portland that guards the $43,000,000 war-built Troutdale, Ore., aluminum works.

“River forecasters said the Columbia reached 30,2 feet above mean sea level at Vancouver, Wash., at noon today equal to the first crest of June 1 that was the highest since 1894. It was just a fraction of an inch below the 29.9 foot level in the Willamette River at Portland’s waterfront.

“The known dead totals thirty-nine in the Columbia basin flood zone, from the river headwaters in the Canadian and United States Rockies to the Pacific, twenty persons are missing and about 60,000 persons are homeless in the four Pacific northwest states and British Columbia.” (New York Times. “Third Crest Enters Valley of Columbia,” 6-14-1948.)

June 14: “Portland, Ore., June 14. — (U.P.) — The Columbia River hit its highest crest since 1894 here today, rising three inches over the first spring peak which wrecked Vanport City on Memorial Day two weeks ago….emergency crews were cheered…by news that the river was falling along a 600 mile stretch upstream from her….

“The flood which hit Washington, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Canada took 43 lives. The Red Cross still counted 22 persons as missing in the Vanport city disaster. Only five bodies have been recovered from the drowned city….” (United Press. “Flood Crest Passes Peak Which Inundated Vanport.” Oakland Tribune, CA, 6-14-1948, p. 2.)

June 15: “Portland, Ore. — (UP) — The most destructive flood in the history of the Pacific northwest began to subside today. The Columbia river, which has been at flood stage for almost a month, was falling from Train, B.C., to Vancouver, Wash. At its height, the flood rose to the highest stages in 54 years….

“The known death toll in the flood rose to 45. The Red Cross still listed 29 persons missing in the Memorial Day Vanport disaster which made 19,000 persons homeless in 30 minutes….” (United Press. “Flood Begins to Subside.” Bakersfield Californian, 6-15-1948, p. 6.)

June 16: “Portland, Ore. — AP — The Pacific northwest flood toll stood at 44 known victims today as crests of the Columbia and Fraser River spilled harmlessly into the Pacific. The exact toll of the flood awaits receding of the water to below flood stage in the lower valley. The Red Cross holds the names of 30 men and women on its list of missing since the flooding of Vanport. The agency indicated it may add others to those missing from a file of some 200 persons it has been unable to locate. This unlocated list once stood at 715, but has been pared daily.

Army engineers report that, although weakened levees could still collapse, the flood crisis in heavily populated lower Columbia Valley is passing rapidly. Five days have elapsed since a levee ripped open. This followed a period in which the Columbia broke through earthworks at the rate of one a day for 13 days. Patrols continue on the dikes guarding farm lands and industrial and residential areas, but the sandbag crews have eased off on their labors.

“The river is due to drop six inches today — down more than a foot from the 30.2-foot crest of early Monday at Vancouver. Flood stage is 15 feet.

“Rehabilitation is under way for 60,000 believed homeless in Oregon, Washington, North Idaho, western Montana and British Columbia. Work on rebuilding broken roads, rails and utilities started a week ago. Flood-crippled industries are beginning to call back their crews for clean-up prior to returning to production.” (Kingsport Times, TN. “Crest of Floods Spill Into Sea; 44 Known Dead,” 6-16-1948, p. 2.)

June 16: “Portland, Ore., June 16 (U.P.) — The Columbia River fell more rapidly than expected today….Two more bodies were recovered from the flood waters covering Vanport City, Ore. They brought the number of known dead in the Memorial Day disaster to seven. The bodies were identified as those of Henry George Smith, 26, and Earl Wayne Hopkings, 58….The finding of Smith’s  body disclosed the first case in which a husband and wife were known to have died in the flood. The body of his bride of two months, Ila Mae, 21, was recovered last Friday and identified yesterday. The Red Cross said 30 names remained on its ever-changing list of ‘critically’ unaccounted for.” (United Press. “Flood’s Ebb Adds to Woe in Northwest,” Berkeley Daily Gazette, CA, 6-16-1948, p. 2.)

June 17: “Portland, Ore., June 17. (AP). Flood-damage surveys are under way today in the Pacific Northwest disaster zones. The receding waters of the Columbia and Fraser Rivers are beginning to uncover homes, farms and industries inundated for weeks….The floods in the Columbia River basin and on British Columbia’s Fraser River have been the costliest in the region’s history.

“Known dead in four states and British Columbia total 45. The Red Cross still lists 29 missing since the Memorial Day destruction of Vanport, Ore. Eight bodies have been recovered from the debris-cluttered waters that shattered the apartment homes of 18,700….” (Associated Press. “Survey of Flood Havoc Under Way.” Long Beach Press-Telegram, CA, 6-17-1948, p. 2.)

June 18: “Portland, Ore., (U.P.) — The Columbia river fell today to nearly three feet below the high crest it hit during its spring floods of the past month….The total of casualties stood at 51 dead, 35 missing and 46,316 homeless….Another body was recovered from the Vanport City flood and raised the number dead in the city’s disaster to nine….

“The flood laid off 9,000 workers in Oregon by knocking out lumbering, wood-working and water-front industries….” (UP. “Flood Cleanup Work…” Oxnard Press-Courier, 6-18-1948, 7.)

June 19: “Portland, Ore., June 18. (INS). Portland’s flood soaked Union station received its first passenger train today in three weeks. Southern Pacific’s Cascade Limited was the first to follow receding flood waters of the Willamette which have closed the big rail terminal since Memorial day. Normal rail traffic is expected Monday [June 21]. Inundated roadbeds north and west of Portland will be the last to receive trains.

“Water of the flooding Columbia was draining slowly from the wreckage of Vanport at the rate of six inches each 24 hours. Of the 42 deaths reported in the three state flood, only eight are from the battered Vanport housing project. Red Cross officials presented a list of 30 persons missing in that area.” (INS. “Trains Reenter Portland,” The Independent, Long Beach, CA, 6-19-1943, 3.)

June 26: “Portland, Ore., June 26. — (AP) — Vanport — 4 weeks later — still is under 16 feet of water….Throughout the Pacific Northwest at least 48 are dead; 16 are still missing from Vanport. Ten of the dead were from there. The Columbia River today is nine feet above its banks. Five weeks ago today it first went over flood stage here….Not for another 30 days, says Col. Theron D. Weaver, North Pacific division Army engineer, can reconstruction start on broken lower river dikes….Until the water falls no one can say how much can be saved from the 4085 homes damaged along 1000 miles of river. Stop-gap housing is the first plan for those who lived in the 5202 family dwellings broken into kindling….” (Associated Press. “Vanport Still Under Water.” Oakland Tribune, CA, 6-27-1948, p. D12.)

July 3: “Portland, Ore., July 3. (AP). Forty-five days from its start, the Columbia River flood will end here Monday [July 5]. The weather bureau forecast that the river could get back in its banks at the 18-foot level then for the first time since May 22. That will be the official finale, going into the books as the second longest Pacific northwest flood — exceeded by the 54-day record of 1894. But the misery of the homeless will for on for days at other points. At Vancouver, Wash., the river will not get back in its banks at the 15-foot level for another 10 days. It will be two weeks before 5000 residents north of Portland can reclaim their homes.

“For the more than 18,500 survivors of Vanport, there will be no return. Their housing project city was shattered completely Memorial Day. Now in trailers and barracks, they face the prospect of waiting months at least for homes. No financing or construction plans yet have been made.

“It was the costliest flood on record. The damage is in yet untotaled multimillions. The known death toll is 49, and still not certainly final. The homeless were estimated at 60,000.

“At its height the river reached 30.2 feet at Vancouver, 15.2 above flood stage. For Vanport, where 16 still are missing in addition to the 10 known dead, there is nearly a month to go. The weather bureau estimated it would be Aug. 2 before all water has drained from the wrecked city.” (Assoc. Press. “Columbia Flood Menace Reduced.” Oakland Tribune, CA. 6-5-1948, p. 1.)

July 20: “Portland, Ore…Engineers blasted a road into the silt-heaped ruins of Vanport City today and found a $7000 safe-cracking robbery but no additional bodies. The housing project was flooded 50 days ago when the Columbia River washed out a dike. Ten bodies have been recovered from the ruins. Authorities feared at one time that hundreds of the project’s 19,000 inhabitants were killed in the disaster. Search parties began checking the bottom floors of buildings two days ago. They found that thieves had done a ‘craftsmanlike’ job of stealing $7000 from the hospital safe. Officers said the door had been ‘punched by experts.’

“As the water receded it left the warped and splintered hulks of houses like derelict ships on an ebb-tide beach. Only a portion of the city’s prefabricated structures were still scattered about the 650-acre site. The others were spread over a five-mile square by the force of the flood. The loss of Vanport City was estimated at $26,000,000 by the Portland Housing Authority.” (Oakland Tribune. “Vanport Probers Find Safe Robbed, But No More Bodies.” 7-20-1948, D14.)

Neuberger on Aftermath: An on-going controversy concerning the building of more dams throughout the Pacific Northwest was energized by the flooding. Concerning the “proposed Hell’s Canyon Dam on the Columbia’s main tributary, the Snake…Surveys have shown that had this dam been in existence when the river was swollen by floods in May and June, the crest at Portland might have been reduced several feet. This could have saved scores of lives and thousands of homes.” (Neuberger. “To the West, Water Is Life and Death,” NYT, 10-24-1948.)

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New York Times. “Deaths Are Reported; Oregon and Idaho Communities Inundated by Floods ; Flood in Oregon Hits Wartime City,” 5-31-1948, p. 1. Accessed 12-1-2017 at:  http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F7091EFA3B5F167B93C3AA178ED85F4C8485F9

New York Times. “Flood Waters Cover Portland’s Airport,” 6-12-1948, p. 29. Accessed 12-1-2017 at: http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F40914FA3D54157B93C0A8178DD85F4C8485F9

New York Times. “Lake That Once Was a City Combed Vainly for Any Dead,” 6-1-1948, 1. Accessed 12-1-2017 at:  http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F00C13F93B5F167B93C3A9178DD85F4C8485F9

New York Times. “Northwest Flood Hits More Towns; Loss at $75,000,000,” 6-1-1948. Accessed 12-1-2017 at: http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F10C13F93B5F167B93C3A9178DD85F4C8485F9

New York Times. “Portland Braces For Second Flood,” June 7, 1948, p. 21. Accessed 12-1-2017 at:  http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=FA0E12FF3A5F167B93C5A9178DD85F4C8485F9

New York Times. “Third Crest Enters Valley of Columbia,” 6-14-1948, p. 40. Accessed 12-1-2017 at: http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F20810F63E58177B93C6A8178DD85F4C8485F9

Oakland Tribune, CA. “Vanport Probers Find Safe Robbed, But No More Bodies.” 7-20-1948, D14. Accessed 12-3-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/oakland-tribune-jul-20-1948-p-14/

Ott, Jennifer. “Vanport Flood begins on Columbia River on May 30, 1948.” HistoryLink.org Essay 10473, posted 8-30-2013. Accessed 12-4-2017 at: http://www.historylink.org/File/10473

Portland State University Library Digital Exhibits. “‘Dikes are Safe at Present’: The 1948 Columbia River Flood and the Destruction of Vanport.” Accessed 12-3-2017 at: https://exhibits.library.pdx.edu/exhibits/show/-dikes-are-safe-at-present—t/the-flood-region/portland-area

Robbins, William G. Landscapes of Conflict: The Oregon Story, 1940-2000. University of Washington Press, 2004. Google preview accessed 12-1-2017 at:  https://books.google.com/books?id=NtsTCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Rubenstein, Sura. “Flood of Change.” The Oregonian, May, 1998. Rerun 12-11-2014 by John Killen, Oregonlive.com editor at: http://www.oregonlive.com/history/2014/12/1998_story_flood_of_change.html

Skovgaard, Dale. “Memories of the 1948 Vanport Flood.” Oregon Historical Quarterly, Spring 2007. Accessed at: http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ohq/108.1/skovgaard.html

Sullivan, William L. Oregon’s Greatest Natural Disasters. Eugene, OR: Navillus Press, 2008.

Taylor, George H. & Raymond R. Hatton. The Oregon Weather Book. Corvalis: Oregon State University Press, 1999.

Topinka, Lyn. ColumbiaRiverImages.com. “Vanport City and the 1948 Vanport Flood.” 2008.  Accessed 12-1-2017 at: http://www.columbiariverimages.com/Regions/Places/vanport.html

United Press. “30,000 More Evacuated as Columbia Floods Vast Areas.” Billings Gazette, MT, 6-2-1948, 1. Accessed 12-2-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/billings-gazette-jun-02-1948-p-1/

 United Press. “Flood Begins to Subside.” Bakersfield Californian, 6-15-1948, p. 6. Accessed 12-3-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/bakersfield-californian-jun-15-1948-p-6/

 United Press. “Flood Cleanup Work Begins.” Oxnard Press-Courier, CA, 6-18-1948, p. 7. Accessed 12-3-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/oxnard-press-courier-jun-18-1948-p-7/

 United Press. “Flood Crest Passes Peak Which Inundated Vanport.” Oakland Tribune, CA, 6-14-1948, p. 2. Accessed 12-3-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/oakland-tribune-jun-14-1948-p-100/

 United Press. “Flood Death Toll Mounting. “Flood Death Toll Mounting.” Oxnard Press-Courier, CA, 5-28-1948, p. 5. Accessed 12-1-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/oxnard-press-courier-may-28-1948-p-5/

United Press. “Flood’s Ebb Adds to Woe in Northwest,” Berkeley Daily Gazette, CA, 6-16-1948, p. 2. Accessed 12-3-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/berkeley-daily-gazette-jun-16-1948-p-2/

United Press. “Northwestern Floods Take 5 Lives; State Streams Are Dropping.” Billings Gazette, MT, 5-25-1948, p. 1. Accessed 12-2-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/billings-gazette-may-25-1948-p-1/

United Press. “Raging River Breaks Dike on Kootenai.” Twin Falls Times News, ID, 5-24-1948, p. 1. Accessed 12-2-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/twin-falls-times-news-may-24-1948-p-1/

United Press. “Rains Hit High Snowfields, Swell Northwest Torrents.” Long Beach Press-Telegram, CA, 5-30-1948, p. 1. Accessed 12-1-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/long-beach-press-telegram-may-30-1948-p-1/

United Press. “Toll of Floods in Northwest Mounts to Five.” Billings Gazette, MT, 5-26-1948, p. 1. Accessed 12-2-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/billings-gazette-may-26-1948-p-1/

United States Geological Survey. Floods of May-June 1948 in Columbia River Basin (Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 1080). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1949. Accessed 9-25-2023 at: https://pubs.usgs.gov/wsp/1080/report.pdf

United States Geological Survey. National Water Summary 1988-89–Hydrologic Events and Floods and Droughts. (Water-Supply Paper 2375). Denver, CO: GPO, 1991. Accessed 9-20-2012 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=CFlz5TNtUpMC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Weather Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce. Climatological Data, Vol. LII, No. 5, May 1948. Accessed 12-4-2017 at:  https://books.google.com/books?id=SI2xcKM1k10C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Weather Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce. Climatological Data, Vol. LII, No. 6, June 1948. Accessed 12-4-2017 at:  https://books.google.com/books?id=SI2xcKM1k10C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Western Regional Climate Center. Washington’s Top 15 Weather Events of the 1900s. “May/June, 1948 – Greatest Spring Snowmelt Flooding.” Accessed 12-4-2017 at: https://wrcc.dri.edu/Climate/extremes_wa.php#top2

Wikipedia. “Vanport City, Oregon.” 11-2-2017 edit. Accessed 12-1-2017 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanport_City,_Oregon

Wilcox, Dee Dee. contribution to “Richland Washington Flood of 1948,” by Gary Behymer, 3-22-2005 update. Accessed 12-4-2017 at: http://krookmcsmile.tripod.com/RichlandFloodof1948.html

Additional Reading

American Red Cross, Portland-Multnomah County Chapter. Vanport City Flood, May 30, 1948: Preliminary Disaster Committee Report. 1948,

[1] “At least 51 lives were lost as a result of the flood. House Document 308 Review Report, prepared by the Corps of Engineers as of October 1, 1948, based on a survey made immediately after the flood, states that 50 lives were lost. One more body was found subsequently at Vanport. Loss of life at Vanport was at least 16.” Preceding sentence notes the US and Canada “was ravaged by a flood that was the greatest in magnitude of discharge since 1894…”

[2] United Press. “Flood Cleanup Work Begins.” Oxnard Press-Courier, CA, 6-18-1948, p. 7.

[3] “When the water recedes in late June, the flood waters will have killed at least 50 people…”

[4] Associated Press. “Columbia River Flood Near End.” Long Beach Press-Telegram, 7-3-1948, p. 2.

[5] Associated Press. “Vanport Still Under Water.” Oakland Tribune, CA, 6-27-1948, p. D12.

[6] United Press. “Flood Crest Passes Peak Which Inundated Vanport.” Oakland Tribune, CA, 6-14-1948, p. 2.

[7] Associated Press. “New Flood Threats in Oregon Area.” Oakland Tribune, CA, 6-12-1948, p 1.

[8] AP. “Cloudbursts, Tides Pour New Woe on Flooded Northwest.” Long Beach Press-Telegram, CA, 6-10-1948, 1.

[9] Associated Press. “Flood Waters Batter Dikes in Northwest.” Berkeley Daily Gazette, CA, 6-9-1048, p. 1.

[10] New York Times. “Portland Braces For Second Flood,” 6-7-1948. An AP report on the same day also notes 26 deaths in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia, with another 52 missing. (AP. “Third Columbia Flood Forms.” Oakland Tribune, CA, 6-7-1948, p. 1.)

[11] Associated Press. “Columbia Flood Menace Reduced.” Oakland Tribune, 6-5-1948, p. 1.

[12] “Some 60,000 persons are homeless in the Pacific Northwest. Twenty-four persons are known to have drowned.” (Noted after writing that death toll in Vanport was not yet known.) Corona Daily Independent, CA. “Flood Nears Proportions of National Calamity.” 6-1-1948, p. 1.

[13] Associated Press. “Pacific Northwest Flood Toll At 17,” Kokomo Tribune, IN, 5-31-1948, p. 1.

[14] UP. “Rains Hit High Snowfields, Swell Northwest Torrents.” Long Beach Press-Telegram, CA, 5-30-1948, 1 & 4.

[15] UP. “Flood Death Toll Mounting. “Flood Death Toll Mounting.” Oxnard Press-Courier, CA, 5-28-1948, p. 5.

[16] AP. “Thousands Flee Columbia’s Floodwaters, Seven Perish.” Long Beach Press-Telegram, CA, 5-27-1948, p. 1.

[17] UP. “Northwestern Floods Take 5 Lives; State Streams Are Dropping.” Billings Gazette, MT, 5-25-1948, p. 1.

[18] AP. “Northwest Flood Takes Two Lives.” Pampa Daily News, TX, 5-24-1948, p. 1. After noting these two fatalities writes “no other casualties were reported.” Rubenstein identifies the victims as Michael Butcher, 2, and his sister, Sally, 11-months.

[19] UP. “Northwestern Floods Take 5 Lives; State Streams Are Dropping.” Billings Gazette, MT, 5-25-1948, p. 1.

[20] It seems that this number is meant to apply to Vanport, which would place it ten above the “official” death toll. If, however, added to the Portland death toll of 8 (Vanport was part of Portland) then this is close to the 23 we tally for the Portland area and Vanport.

[21] INS. “Flood Rolls…As Dike Near Portland Crumbles.” Lubbock Morning Avalanche, TX, 6-12-1948, p.1.

[22] AP. “Three Men and Boy Missing in Floods in Northwest Area.” Twin Falls Times-News, ID, 5-25-1948, p. 6.

[23] AP. “Three Men and Boy Missing in Floods in Northwest Area.” Twin Falls Times-News, ID, 5-25-1948, p. 1.

[24] Portland State University Library Digital Exhibits. “‘Dikes are Safe at Present’: The 1948 Columbia River Flood and the Destruction of Vanport.”

[25] Dresbeck. Oregon Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival. 2006, p. 64. “…the first known death [after Vanport flooded] did not occur until 9:30 P.M. on Monday. The Denver Avenue dike had thus far held, but the waters were rising against it fast. All day Monday, about one hundred workers shored up the dike, and it seemed that it would hold. But at 9:30 a Portland General Electric worker was killed when his car was caught in a new breach in the road, a gap that rapidly grew to 500 feet wide. It gave the apartment buildings somewhere to go, and they floated through the breach, alighting in the area just east of Vanport.” Rubenstein identifies the victim as Hiram Skaggs and notes: “About 9:30 p.m. Monday the flood claimed its first certain fatality. Hiram M. “Mike” Skaggs, a Portland General Electric Co. emergency worker, was driving on Denver Avenue, not knowing its dike had just been breached. His car slid from the road into a raging torrent and over a 15-foot waterfall. Skaggs and his vehicle disappeared.”

[26] Robbins. Landscapes of Conflict: The Oregon Story, 1940-2000. 2004, 67.

[27] UP. “Northwestern Floods Take 5 Lives; State Streams Are Dropping.” Billings Gazette, MT, 5-25-1948, p. 1. Have seen other references to two deaths. For example, see: Portland State University Library Digital Exhibits. “‘Dikes are Safe at Present’: The 1948 Columbia River Flood and the Destruction of Vanport.”

[28] “The greatest single disaster of the flood occurred at Vanport, Oreg., when a railroad fill serving as a dike broke at 4:15 p.m on Sunday, May 30…According to most recent reports at least 16 persons lost their lives.”

[29] The area that was Vanport is today within Portland, with the Columbia River and Hayden Island to the north.

[30] Harrison, John. “Floods and Flood Control.” NWCouncil.org, 10-31-2008. Writes: “The flood [of 1948] lasted 20 days. The worst damage occurred in Vanport, Oregon, where the flood waters broke through a railroad dike on May 29. Vanport, on the south shore of the river across from Vancouver, Washington, was a community built quickly during World War II to provide housing for workers at the Kaiser shipyards in Vancouver and Portland. Thirty-two people died and seven were reported missing and presumed dead. The community of 18,000 was destroyed.” There is no footnote for this or sources cited, so we do not know where this figure came from. Not used in our tally because it is not supported by other reporting at the time and since.

[31] “A city of 20,000 situated near the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers in Northwest Oregon was under 15 feet of water in just two hours when a dike holding back the snow melt swollen Columbia River failed…About 25 lives were lost…” We do not use this figure given the number of bodies recovered as of Aug 1 (13) and an official estimate of 15. There was speculation at the time of more fatalities, and if one added persons from a Red Cross “missing” list, then one could arrive at about twenty-five deaths — but this would be speculative.

[32] “The official death toll is under 20…”CBS News, 11-3-2017.

[33] “Washington Floods and Droughts Chapter (beginning on page 551). At page 552, notes: “Although flood damage in Washington was severe in the Pend Oreille, Spokane, Okanogan, and Methow River basins, the greatest disaster of the May-June 1948 flood occurred at Vanport, Oreg., near Portland, where the community was destroyed–16 persons died and 19,000 were left homeless.” Perhaps the Portland utility workman’s death is counted as 16^th?

[34] The last newspaper report we have located of the time, noted on August 1^st that 13 bodies had been recovered after an intensive and extensive search. We use fifteen rather than 13 in that this is reportedly the official estimate. It was noted then that given several persons were still missing, perhaps there were a small number of additional deaths. It is also possible, though, that with homes gone and not coming back, some people just moved on.

[35] “The official record was eventually set at fifteen, with an acknowledgment that there may have been a few others who could not be accounted for.”

[36] Writes “…the Multnomah County coroner’s office would place the number of confirmed flood deaths at 15, though at least seven other people listed as missing were never found.” [Or, as we have noted, one or more may simply have gone elsewhere.]

[37] “Portland, Ore., Aug. 1. (INS). A thorough search of debris in the Vanport flood area by Multnomah county deputy sheriffs today failed to discover any bodies of the 10 persons still missing. A group of sheriff’s reserves combed the area thoroughly. Thirteen bodies have been recovered so far of flood victims.” (INS. “10 Still Missing.” The Independent, Long Beach, CA, 8-2-1948, p. 8.)

[38] International News Service. “River Flood Toll 43,” McKinney Daily Courier-Gazette, TX, 6-23-1948, p. 1.

[39] United Press. “Flood’s Ebb Adds to Woe in Northwest,” Berkeley Daily Gazette, CA, 6-16-1948, p. 2. Identifies the two most recently found remains as those of Henry George Smith, 26, and Earl Wayne Hopkins, 58. Notes the body of Smith’s wife of two months, Ila Mae Smith, 21, had been recovered June 11 and identified June 15. Also notes this as the first husband and wife deaths thus far positively identified.

[40] Associated Press. “Columbia Flood Menace Reduced.” Oakland Tribune, CA. 6-5-1948, p. 1.

[41] Associated Press. “Vanport Yields 2 Flood Dead.” Lincoln Nebraska State Journal, 6-5-1948, p. 1.

[42] INS. “Flood Rolls…New…As Dike Near Portland Crumbles.” Lubbock Morning Avalanche, TX, 6-12-1948, p.1.

[43] United Press. “Raging River Breaks Dike on Kootenai.” Twin Falls Times News, ID, 5-24-1948, p. 1.

[44] The Western Regional Climate Center, in Washington’s Top 15 Weather Events of the 1900s, ranks as number 2 the “May/June, 1948 – Greatest Spring Snowmelt Flooding.”

[45] Within Washington Section it is written: “Within the State 39 deaths have been attributed to the flood…” We do not find this credible.

[46] NYT. “Deaths Are Reported; Oregon and Idaho Communities Inundated by Floods…,” 5-31-1948, p. 1. Another account, perhaps a reference to this death notes that “Si Walker, 70, Concully, Wash, was swept away in swollen Salmon Creek near his home. Walker plunged into the creek after a bridge on which he was crossing collapsed.” (UP. “Rains Hit High Snowfields, Swell Northwest Torrents.” Long Beach Press-Telegram, CA, 5-30-1948, p. 1.)

[47] Associated Press. “Higher Water Threatens in Western Flood.” Middletown Journal, OH. 6-10-1948, p.1, c.1.

[48] Robbins. Landscapes of Conflict: The Oregon Story, 1940-2000. 2004, 67-68. Robbins was writing about Portland and Vanport, thus we speculate that this is a reference to deaths on the north shore of the Columbia River, in WA.

[49] The account which identifies the victim’s name and age notes “He was cleaning out his family’s flooded-out restaurant, and was electrocuted when a live wire fell into the water in which he was standing.” (Elizabeth Gibson. “Flood inundates Kennewick and Richland on May 31, 1948,” HistoryLink.org Essay 5675, 3-31-2004.) Another source notes “he grabbed a hot wire while cleaning up after the flood.” This source notes the building was the Dutch Mill Restaurant. (Dee Dee Wilcox contribution to “Richland Washington Flood of 1948,” by Gary Behymer, 2005.)

[50] AP. “52 Persons Missing in Vanport Disaster Area of Northwest.” The Dothan Eagle, AL, 6-16-1948, pp. 1-2.

[51] United Press. “Raging River Breaks Dike on Kootenai.” Twin Falls Times News, ID, 5-24-1948, p. 1.

[52] CP [Canadian Press]. “B.C. Call Special Session Vote Funds For Rehabilitation; Resume Rail Traffic.” Medicine Hat Daily News, Alberta, Canada. 6-16-1948, p. 1. Notes. Dr. A. P. Proctor, 45, of Vernon, missing since Thursday, is British Columbia’s tenth flood victim.”

[53] United Press. “Toll of Floods in Northwest Mounts to Five.” Billings Gazette, MT, 5-26-1948, p. 1.

[54] UP. “Flood Death Toll Mounting. “Flood Death Toll Mounting.” Oxnard Press-Courier, CA, 5-28-1948, p. 5. Notes that the crew members drowned and that rushing water had weakened the bridge.

[55] UP. “Flood Death Toll Mounting. “Flood Death Toll Mounting.” Oxnard Press-Courier, CA, 5-28-1948, p. 5.)

[56] CP. “B.C. Call Special Session Vote Funds For Rehabilitation…” Medicine Hat Daily News, Can., 6-16-1948, 1.

[57] INS. “Flood Rolls…New…As Dike Near Portland Crumbles.” Lubbock Morning Avalanche, TX, 6-12-1948, p.1. In that the Bonneville dam is between WA and OR the death could have been from either State.

[58] Assuming this is short for Alberta, province of Canada to the east of British Columbia.

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