Fifty years ago this month, Oregon – and in particular the Mountain community – experienced a flood that few had seen before and none have seen since. The “100-year”
flood (just a one percent chance it could happen in any given year) destroyed
houses, cut off communities, separated families and made Governor Mark
Hatfield declare Oregon a disaster area.

In capturing the aftermath of the flood, Don Hom, writing for the Sunday, Jan.
3, 1965 edition of The Sunday Oregonian, set the stage for the flood starting
with the previous night, Sunday, Dec. 20, 1964:

“Late that night the warm, spring-like Chinook wind ... swept over Western
Oregon. The next morning the streets ran deep with water, ponds appear
where there had only been snow drifts. Low spots in the road were puddles.
The first reports of slides and wash-outs came over the car radios."
This day, Monday, Dec. 21, the shortest day of the year, the first day of
winter, also turned out to be the most important day of 1964.

It was the day that marked the beginning of the worst disaster to hit Oregon
in at least 200 years.”

Holm noted the buildup to the flood started on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 1964, when
snow flurries first hit Oregon. At the same time, a mass of cold air formed
over Alaska and the Yukon, allowing commuters in the Portland area to hear
signals emanating from Alberta, Canada (known as “skip” to ham radio
operators).

On Wednesday, snow was on the ground in Portland while temperatures
averaged 15 degrees, and the cold front grew to cover an area from
Bellingham, Wash. to Texas and Detroit. At the same time, another storm
formed over the Pacific Ocean with warm air and moisture.

When the western edge of the cold front collapsed, cold air and high winds
surged into Oregon and lowered the temperature in Portland to eight degrees,
a new record, and making December 1964 the coldest since 1879.

Snow continued through that weekend, as a two-truck collision on the
Columbia River Highway caused a backup involving 100 cars, and Oregon
retailers complained about low sales.

By Sunday night, the ground in western Oregon was completely frozen and
also covered with snow. On Sunday night, the storm from the Pacific began to
move in (now known as a Pineapple Express) bringing in the moisture that
would form a torrent of rain to melt the snow and unleash the flood.

Gene Murphy, a special correspondent writing for The Oregon Journal on
Monday, Dec. 28, 1964, detailed the conditions on the Mountain before the
rain arrived, with Rhododendron experiencing a temperature of zero for three
days prior and at least a foot of snow on the ground. After the flood, Murphy,
an employee at the Zigzag District Ranger Station who lived on Still Creek,
wrote, “At the west edge of Rhododendron, where the river and the creek
come together, there are four channels now instead of two.”

According to The Sunday Oregonian on Jan. 3, 1965, all the railroads leading
into Oregon were blocked by damage from the flood, while half of the
streamflow at the Bonneville dam was due to runoff from the Columbia River’s
tributaries.

In that same edition, Robert Olmos reported the statewide impact included
“between 4,000 and 4,500 families statewide estimated to need Red Cross
assistance,” and “more than 6,300 homes received major or minor damage.”

Other papers shared the details of damage and loss on the Mountain, as The
Sandy Post from Jan. 7, 1965 noted the severity of the flood in the Wildcat
community, where 28 of the 30 dwellings that received damage were
destroyed, 100 people were left homeless and included the Mountain’s sole
casualty, A. Harry Engols.

An earlier edition of the Sandy Post, from Dec. 31, 1964, included a message
from Clackamas County Sheriff Joe Shobe, who estimated between 500 and
750 homes were lost on Mount Hood, noted the Rhododendron bridge lost
both approaches and Hwy. 26 was closed between Alder Creek and
Government Camp (passes for residents and others were issued at the Zigzag
District Ranger Station).

In an unattributed story in the same edition, the paper revealed the Sleepy
Hollow bridge was also damaged, while the new bridge at Brightwood, still
under construction, served as a dam for all the debris that was washed
downstream. The Salmon River bridge remained, the story noted, as damage
on that river was less severe than on the Sandy or Zigzag rivers.