DISASTER: Wild Water

Vanport, Ore., on the banks of the Columbia River just outside Portland, was the nation's biggest wartime housing project. It was built in nine months, housed 40,000 people in its nearly 800 structures. At war's end, though many went elsewhere, 18,700 still remained.

Last week, as the massive Columbia shouldered against its banks, surged muddily over low-lying farmland and gnawed at its retaining dikes, the people of Vanport got a warning: the Columbia was 15 feet above flood level, highest in 54 years. It might overflow. One afternoon it did. The railroad...

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