Sixty-seven years after the city of Vanport was leveled by raging waters of the Columbia River, the failed levee that triggered the disaster is still inadequate to withstand a major flood. However, the city of Portland and other local governments continue to work on the problem under the auspices of an Oregon Solutions Project…
Sixty-seven years after the city of Vanport was leveled by raging waters of the Columbia River, the failed levee that triggered the disaster is still inadequate to withstand a major flood…
Stakeholders are working to find a feasible solution to bring Portland levees up to federal standards…
It’s been 157 years since a hurricane hit the West Coast of the United States. But even Portland isn’t immune to the effects of tropical cyclones. That’s because hurricanes Katrina and Sandy have federal regulators considering whether already-built levees across the country are actually safe, a discussion causing headaches for local governments nationwide…
Mount Hood rightfully occupies the top spot in the Portland area’s pantheon of dramatic natural features, and the Columbia River Gorge isn’t far behind…
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 … Read moreOfficials keep nervous watch on levees
Portland city council members authorized $1.4 million in bonds to pay for a study of the levees along the south bank of the Columbia River on Wednesday. The study will focus on an 11-mile stretch of levees that protects industrial land and neighborhoods in North Portland…
Water is Portland’s secret problem. Not the Bull Run Reservoir water that runs out of your tap nor the contentious May ballot measure that will determine who controls it. No, the next big whack to taxpayers will, in fact, come in the fight against floodwaters, the kind that have inundated the city every few decades … Read moreWhen The Levee Breaks…Us
The tiny Multnomah County Drainage District is going to get some help figuring out how to strengthen the Portland area’s levee system, which keeps the area south of the Columbia River from being deluged by the river. The 14-employee drainage district faces a federal mandate to recertify the levee system’s safety, under rules that got … Read moreGovernor brings in reinforcements to help shore up Columbia River levee