19481776 Club
SP&S railway berm collapses; ten-foot wall of water erases Vanport in an afternoon
This morning, Portland's Housing Authority told 18,500 residents the dikes were safe. Tonight, Oregon's second-largest city is under the Columbia.
At 4:17 p.m. on Memorial Day, May 30, 1948, the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway berm gave way, sending a ten-foot wall of water into Vanport, Oregon — a city of 18,500 people built on reclaimed Columbia River lowlands. That morning, the Housing Authority of Portland had issued a statement reassuring residents the dikes were safe. By nightfall, Oregon's second-largest city was underwater…
