Flooding in 1996: Tualatin Times Article

The following is reprinted with permission from the Tualatin Times.
 

Issue: Monday, February 12, 1996
Written by Janie Nafsinger

The Tualatin River just couldn't take any more.

The winter's wild combination of frozen ground, melting snow, and heavy rainfall finally caught up with the normally slow, calm river last week.

Not since 1974 had floodwaters buried downtown Tualatin, leaving apartment dwellers homeless and shutting down businesses. Many homeowners residing along the river also were forced to evacuate.

In all, flood waters affected 29 homes, 97 multi-family units, and 85 commercial/industrial buildings in Tualatin, according to city figures. That doesn't include affected homes in the Hazelbrook neighborhood, which lies in unincorporated Washington County.

As the river level rose, the city declared a state of emergency and distributed evacuation notices to residents living along the Tualatin River and in the Roamer's Rest RV park off Pacific Highway. The river finally ran amok Thursday night, rising at a rate of 6 inches per hour and reaching a high of 126.3 feet above sea level Friday at midnight before beginning a slow retreat.

That's more than 2 feet above the 100-year floodplain. The river's normal winter level is 106 to 108 feet above sea level, according to the city. Hundreds of volunteers joined forces with city crew, Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue, and local and state police to build mini-dams out of 20,000 sandbags, evacuate flood victims and close off streets.

The American Red Cross set up an emergency shelter at Living Savior Lutheren Church up on Sagert Street, just blocks from the flooded downtown. A water rescue team plucked stranded families from their homes, though other residents chose to stay put and stick it out.

Lots of time Saturday was spent getting people out who changed their minds and decided to leave but had no way to get out said Karen Eubanks, spokeswoman for Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue.

As Thursday's downpour gave way to sunny skies on Friday, sightseers ignored road closed signs to see the flood for themselves.

Cars heading down Southwest Tualatin Road made it as far as 86th Avenue before waters stopped them. People stood at the water's edge, capturing the scene on film; other strolled along the railroad trestle above Tualatin Community Park for a higher view of the huge lake engulfing the park.

Friday afternoon, Harry Brown waded through knee-deep water surrounding his little red house across from the park, gazed over at the half-submerged city parks and recreation building, and pretty much counted his blessings. The flood water hadn't reached the main floor of Brown's house, which fortunately was built on a high foundation, he noted. His travel trailer was under water, with just its top showing. "I lucked out", said the local engineer, who'd taken a day off work and arose at 2 a.m. to help other flood victims. "If that's all that happens to me, I'm lucky".
 

Brown didn't know how deep the water was on Tualatin Road, though the pickup - he didn't know whose - that floated next to his house gave him an idea. Just the top was peeking through the water.

At the corner of Tualatin Road and 86th, water lapped at the edge of Tualatin Animal Clinic. The basement had flooded, but the three hospitalized cats in the clinic were safely tucked away on the main floor, said technician Deirdre Smith. "I'm debating whether to take them home and put them in my garage", said Smith.

Attorney Ron Ferguson, whose offices also stand across from the park, cruised by in his motor boat for another look at the flooded downtown. It was his fourth trip out on the water that day - earlier he'd taken a TV cameraman on a tour - so he'd become familiar with the water's high and low spots.

"As you get to the post office, it's still shallow but rising" Ferguson shouted above the motor's roar, navigating the boat through the intersection of Boones Ferry and Tualatin roads, where the traffic signals showed unchanging green and yellow lights. "We were wondering earlier if I should obey those" joked Ferguson, who lives on Parrett Mountain.

The views from his boat included more crowds gathered at other edges of the water: to the east, Upper Boones Ferry; and to the south, the point where Boones Ferry, Nyberg Street and Tualatin-Sherwood Road join.

South of Nyberg, Pizza Hut looked like a party scene at about 4 p.m. Friday as crowds gravitated toward the line of sandbags that volunteers toiled away at earlier in the afternoon. Beyond the quickly assembled line of defense, brown water roiled like rapids.

"It came up so fast, we ran out of time" said Dave Carney, a Tualatin resident and owner of Tualatin Auto Body. "I was down there on Thursday night and Friday, helping them the best I could" he added, and "by 2 to 2:30 a.m. (Friday), we thought we had done what we could do." Overnight, though, the river rose dramatically. "I was shocked" he said. "Shoot, it must have risen another 4 feet."

One volunteer, Dave Archibald, kept stacking bags as the water level kept rising. A few onlookers admired the way he fit the bags snugly together, pressing each one with his knee after hoisting it in place. "A little time in the military, you learn how to use sandbags"; Archibald said, barely looking up from his work.

Another volunteer, Christina Freadman, took a break at the restaurant's entrance. She'd been up since 7 a.m., helping with sandbags at the city operations center before arriving at Pizza Hut.
Freadman and her husband Jason, an electrician apprentice, moved to Tualatin Jan. 1 from Roseburg. "It's been a definite new year for us" she said, laughing. It had been 6 a.m. since she'd been at their home on Nyberg Lane, another flooded area. "I have no idea what its like there" she said.

Next door at Rodda Paint & Decor Center, the staff was trying a different defense: A long line of 5-gallon buckets of paint covered with long sheets of plastic, to be fortified with sand bags.

Dentist Bill Jordan returned to downtown Saturday afternoon with a boat to retrieve medical records and equipment from his office in Tualatin Park Plaza on Boones Ferry Road.

"There's about 8 inches of water in there" Jordan said as he and his father, Bill Sr. of Molalla, hoisted plastic bags from their boat at the water's edge on Tualatin Road and 86th Avenue.

At the Red Cross shelter at Living Savior Lutheran, equipped with cots, food, water and coffee, volunteers from Explorer Post 700 of Portland waited for more evacuees to arrive. Only one family of four had checked in as of Sunday afternoon, said Explorer Ron Stiles. Several other people had stopped by for drinking water, though, he added.

Also Sunday afternoon, volunteers mobilized for the first cleanup chore: removing sandbags from Pizza Hut.

"It's unbelievable, all the help we've had from people" said Mayor Lou Ogden.

"Back when it was just raining - before the flood hit - we were receiving calls from people who asked, 'What can I do to help?'" Ogden noted.

"There's something that happens in these sort of situation that pulls everybody together" he added.

"I think it's something that God wove into the spirit of human beings."