Vanport Flood and It's Impact
The highest occupancy peak at Vanport was reached during January and February of1945. As the war drew to a close, the shipyard orders began to decline and layoff began. As early as March 1945 approximately 500 white families left Vanport each month until September, when the rate accelerated following the end of the war. In January 1945 black families constituted 18 percent of the total families. The only housing, outside the Federal housing projects, open to blacks was located in a segregated and concentrated area bounded by NE Holladay, North and NE Russell, NE Union and the Willamette River. Real estate agents were bound by a code of ethics established by Realty Board in1919 that made them subject to dismissal if they sold outside the prescribed area. Since housing was difficult to find in Portland the proportion of African American in Vanport rose to 35 percent.
May 1948 produced a combination of warm temperatures and heavy rain throughout much of the basin, bringing the most water since 1894. Inspite of concerns, the authorities decided to not warn the inhabitants because they did not want to house the minority population in Portland. The residents were not evacuated. One former Vanport resident, Rosa Lee Washington, remembers the flood. One Sunday, they had put this slip under our door in Vanport, saying don't be alarmed everything is okay. People thought so. Well, that Sunday about 4:00p.m. the Police came by and told us to get out of there, the dike has broken.41
In about 10 minutes everything was washed away. The City of Vanport that was built within a few months was virtually wiped out within a few minutes.
We could see the housing units colliding and collapsing. ...Everybody who made it to the highway was just screaming. I never seen anything like it. I thought it was the end of the world. Later on that night, the highway bank where we were standing became flooded. It just shows how good Godis, it could have happened while we were standing there. Anyway, every time you heard a siren you jump, got scared It was very frightening. (Rosa Lee Washington interview in 1992)
This text is complied from the History of Portland's African American Community (1805 to the Present),
Published by the Portland Bureau of Planning, 1992
May 1948 produced a combination of warm temperatures and heavy rain throughout much of the basin, bringing the most water since 1894. Inspite of concerns, the authorities decided to not warn the inhabitants because they did not want to house the minority population in Portland. The residents were not evacuated. One former Vanport resident, Rosa Lee Washington, remembers the flood. One Sunday, they had put this slip under our door in Vanport, saying don't be alarmed everything is okay. People thought so. Well, that Sunday about 4:00p.m. the Police came by and told us to get out of there, the dike has broken.41
In about 10 minutes everything was washed away. The City of Vanport that was built within a few months was virtually wiped out within a few minutes.
We could see the housing units colliding and collapsing. ...Everybody who made it to the highway was just screaming. I never seen anything like it. I thought it was the end of the world. Later on that night, the highway bank where we were standing became flooded. It just shows how good Godis, it could have happened while we were standing there. Anyway, every time you heard a siren you jump, got scared It was very frightening. (Rosa Lee Washington interview in 1992)
This text is complied from the History of Portland's African American Community (1805 to the Present),
Published by the Portland Bureau of Planning, 1992