The Vanport Flood of 1948

The Vanport Flood of May 1948 is widely regarded as the most significant single natural disaster in the recorded history of the Columbia River Basin. Although the city of Vanport had only existed since 1942 and had been hastily constructed as a home for migrant shipyard workers during World War II, 1943/44 it was the second largest city in Oregon and the largest public housing project in the nation’s history. A dike holding back the Columbia River gave way at about 4:00 pm on May 30, 1948, and by nightfall, the city was virtually gone. It has since been erased off of maps and all visible traces of it have completely disappeared. Somewhat miraculously, only about 20 to 30 people died in the flood (the numbers vary a bit in different accounts). However, some 18 thousand were made homeless, causing a great dispersion and relocation of this extraordinarily ethnically diverse community.

The Oregon Trail chapter of the Red Cross, as well as the Vancouver, Washington chapter and others, immediately set to work on feeding and providing shelter and medical care for the victims, as well as assisting in the desperate searches for missing people. Although one does get some sense of the scope and tragedy of the disaster from our photograph archives, what is overwhelmingly conveyed is the efficiency and effectiveness of the Red Cross organization at this time, displaying the professionalism and national recognition they had acquired during World War II. The crisply dressed Red Cross women are shown registering bewildered and destitute looking Vanport refugees, many of them African-American. A whole series of photographs are devoted to President Harry Truman’s visit to Portland shortly after the disaster, where he commemorated the Red Cross’s job and pledged federal aid for the victims.

In the choice and setup of photos, one gets the impression of an organization with a great sense of self-importance and a well-honed public image savvy. Only a small handful of our selection of photos conveys anything of the scope of the disaster itself. The newspaper headlines found in the collection such as “Matchstick Rubble Hunted for Bodies”, “Vanport Homes Swept Eastward in Low Area, Man Plunged to Death”, “Last Refugees of Ruined Vanport Learn Real Meaning of Word Neighbor”, and “2 Babies Bodies found at Vanport” give some sense of the much larger story, beyond the involvement of the Red Cross. For this amateur archivist, looking for the larger story outside the archive was essential in order to put our Vanport Flood materials in a historical and sociological context.

The scope of the disaster brings to mind several questions involving issues of class and race, but it boils down to the question- how was this allowed to happen? Much of the simple answer lies in the tenuousness of the Vanport project itself. With the outbreak of World War II, specifically the U.S. war with Japan in the Pacific, there was immediate construction boom in the shipyards of Portland. With the then relatively small population of Portland, it became necessary to recruit large numbers of workers from the East and South. Over 100, 000 new workers and their families poured into the Portland area within a year, most of them poor immigrants and migrant workers. Between 20,000 and 25,000 of them were African-Americans, the first major wave of black migration to Oregon. The Housing Authority of Portland, with large federal funds behind it, hastily constructed, in barely a year, the ‘city’ of Vanport- a combination of the names of the nearby cities of Portland and Vancouver. At its height, upwards of 80,000 people lived in the town but only about 20,000 remained in 1948, after the construction boom of the war had died down. The thousands of homes in the town were ramshackle constructions with wooden foundations, but otherwise the town itself was actually pretty welcoming, with parks, sidewalks, and all utilities. It was never considered to be permanent housing, but the poorest of the workers could not afford to relocate and much of Vanport was subsisting on unemployment and welfare. Vanport was built 15 feet below the Columbia’s water level and the shoddily constructed dike would prove insufficient for the high floodwaters of spring 1948.

Contemporary issues of the Northwest Clarion, a small local paper of the time that was a member of the Associated Negro Press, shed some light on the complex racial issues involved in the disaster and the response to it. On the positive side, confirming Portland’s long-standing progressive reputation, an article in the Clarion entitled “Those Angels of Mercy” praises the Red Cross’s and others’ work in glowing terms and boldly states, “There was absolutely no prejudice nor partiality shown by these organizations…here in Portland real Christianity and democracy is personified” (Northwest Clarion, Vol. 2, No. 21, June 1948). Yet a following “Flood Special” edition of the paper included a cartoon of a the angel of death looming over the flooded city with a bitterly ironic quote from the leaflet the official notice that had been given to the Vanport residents just hours before the dike burst that said, “Do not become panicky-there is no immediate danger! You will be notified in plenty of time if evacuation is deemed necessary”. An article from this issue states “Although Portland received national recognition for severing the ‘color line’ during rescue efforts, segregation patterns persisted”. This article speaks of local leaders who talked of the “negro dilemma” after the Vanport events, and quotes the President of the Central East Portland Community Club; “If they are allowed to fan out through the city it soon will be necessary to station a policeman on every corner”. With the obvious hostility, or at least indifference, that much of the surrounding communities regarded Vanport, it is arguable that neglect played a large role in the disaster’s consequences.

The vast majority of black families were hit hardest by their losses and could not afford to leave town. There was no direct action taken by the housing authorities that had created Vanport in the first place, and most of the black residents relocated to the Albina district, creating a racial ghetto and reinforcing old patterns of segregation. Vanport had been an early model of integration, one created almost accidentally by the necessities of war. It would take many years and the Civil Rights movement before such communities would come about again in the Northwest.

Primary Source Document List from the Oregon Trail Chapter of the American Red Cross Archives Dealing with the Vanport Flood

Photos- Box

Refugees, Vanport Flood, May to June 1948- folder with 5 black and white 8x10 photos

Volunteers, Vanport Flood, 1948- folder with 14 photos

Vanport Flood, Portland, Oregon, structural and land damage- folder with 11 photos

President Truman, Vanport Flood Visit, June 1948- folder with 11 photos

Newspapers- Box 1

Folder 6- Articles from May 29, 1948 concerning flooding of the Columbia

Folder 7- Articles from May 30, 1948 concerning the floods

Folder 8- Articles from May 31, 1948 concerning the Vanport Flood

Folder 9- Articles from June 1, 1948 concerning the Vanport Flood

Folder 10- Articles from June 2, 1948 concerning the Vanport Flood

Folder 11- Articles from June 3, 1948 concerning the Vanport Flood

Folder 12- Articles from June 4, 1948 concerning the Vanport Flood

Folder 13- Articles from June 5-6, 1948 concerning the Vanport Flood

Printed Materials- Box 2

Pamphlet- “Vanport City Flood: Preliminary Disaster Committee Report”1948, Portland-Multnomah County Chapter ARC- 3 originals and 2 copies

Pamphlet- “The Northwest Floods: Official Report of Relief Operations” February 1949, National ARC- 2 copies

Secondary Source:

Maben, Manly. Vanport. Portland, Or: Oregon Historical Society Press, 1987.