The flooding of Vanport | full documentary | Oregon Experience

Comments · 269

• SC

  @scottlee9373 · 4 years ago

  I was two years old when we escaped the flood in Vanport. My mother, Marce Lee and my father Jim Lee didn't talk about it much except to say it was a close call and that we got out alive with all our family and my mother's birthday cake. They moved us to Eugene, Oregon and started over. This post explains alot and I thank it's makers.

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• L.

  @l.j.masters6763 · 3 years ago

  In 1945, my father, a World War II veteran, purchased a Vanport house.  It was floated up the Columbia River on a barge.  My father had built a basement.  The Vanport house was placed on the basement.  A Master Bedroom was added; a garage was added and what mother always called "a service room" was added.  That house is still standing in Arlington, Oregon on Hemlock Avenue.  It has other additions which were added later..  My brother in law built a fireplace.  The  part of the house that was a Vanport house did not have plaster board walls.  The original floor plan of that Vanport house was two bedrooms, a living/dining area, a bathroom and the kitchen.

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• MA

  @mackpines · 4 years ago

  I hope Vanport will never be forgotten. <br>Portland has so much amazing history for a city less than 200 years old.

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• WE

  @wehvgirlpwr · 3 years ago

  I have a deep history with the Vancouver Ship Yards. I had two sets of grandparents that helped build ships there during WWII. &nbsp;My paternal grandfather was hit by a car and killed when leaving work one day. He was an alcoholic and a bootlegger and had a hangover so he was going home. My dads brothers were fighting in Europe and he was taken out of high school to identify the body. Prior to working in the shipyards both sides of my family worked in California as migrant workers going from farm to farm. My mother called it the “pea tramp”. Many people who farmed in the Midwest and lost farms due to the depression and the dust bowl, came out west to find work. They lived in tents or homemade trailers and it was a hard life. They were happy to have better jobs so they came to the shipyards. So proud of my two “Rosy the Riveter” grandmothers.

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• TR

  @trumpbcool8612 · 2 years ago

  My Grandfather was a bus driver at the time and he saved several people. He kept going back and loading his bus with people until he couldn&apos;t get into the area anymore. The guy was awesome!

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• JO

  @johnycoho7830 · 4 years ago

  I’m told that my Great Aunt was in the hospital when it flooded, my Great Grandpa came in a canoe and rescued her through a window

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• TI

  @tinahengen3168 · 4 years ago

  My grandmother lived there, her best friend died in this flood.

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• ES

  @Estorep · 4 years ago

  My father and his friend were on the house roof repairing it when they saw the levee break. &nbsp;They ran in the house, got my mother and my brother and left. &nbsp;They lost all their possessions including wedding, &nbsp;birth certificates and personal photos.

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• MY

  @myrnaparjani1910 · 3 years ago

  I remember the Vanport flood very well. &nbsp;We lived on no. Mclellan in Kenton. Our school was closed to house the homeless, it was terrible. &nbsp;I remember people walking by our house to Kenton Grade school. &nbsp;It was terrible. &nbsp;Such a sad time.

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• OT

  @Ottonic6 · 2 years ago (edited)

  Amazing! I&apos;m 65 yrs old and have lived in the Portland area all my life and this is the first I&apos;ve heard or seen about this. I went to school here all the way through a first year of college and don&apos;t recall ever learning about this. I can&apos;t believe it. This was terrible. Why was this not talked about more? I&apos;ve worked serving the public all my adult life and not once did I hear anyone bring this up. It makes me sad. Thank you for this documentary and opening my eyes on this tragic event.

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• NA

  @nancytaylor5569 · 4 years ago

  Being a 4th generation Portlander, it’s really interesting to see what it looked like here so many years ago. I can still remember a lot of those businesses in downtown Portland. It’s really changed.

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• MA

  @mackpines · 3 years ago

  75 years ago this month. <br>Amazing how different the area looks now. You wouldn’t have guessed a town existed there.

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