The same railroad embankment that failed to stop the disastrous Vanport Flood of 1948 remains a weak link in Portland’s levee system designed to prevent floods.
A new engineering assessment of the Columbia River levee system found four problem areas that don’t meet stiffer federal flood-protection standards enacted after Hurricane Katrina. The biggest one is the railroad embankment used by Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains as they chug north and south between Heron Lakes Golf Club and Smith Lake in North Portland…