CHRISTMAS 1964

Actually it started on the 18th of the month. It had been really cold. It had snowed early in the month. Looked like a white Christmas was in our futures. Two days before the Christmas break. Two and a half actually when we were sent home. It was raining. I mean it was raining. I was within walking distance from home but I believe the schools wanted to get the bus kids home. We didn't even have time to clean out the refrigerators in the home ec. room. Christmas concert delayed. We didn't know it at the time but Oregon, about half of Idaho, and Northern California were about to get slammed. Drowned. Inundated.

It started with a cold snap. Froze the ground, heavy snow on top. When it warmed up the melting snow and heavy rains had nowhere to go except down river.

The media calls them the "Pineapple Express." A river of warm, very wet air that starts out near the Hawaian Islands and heads northeast. In this case it was packing rainfall of up to fifteen inches in twenty four hours. It hit the snowpacks. It hit the mountains. The USGS called it a hundred year flood. December of '64 still holds the record as one of the worst floods in this part of the US in the twentieth century. A politician in California politician called it a thousand year flood. Maybe it was. For California.

Deception Creek took out the bridge on 58 north of town. One of our neighbors parked his vehicle at the gas station where the railroad bridged the Willamette and hiked into town. The Greyhound bus made it into town before the highway was washed out east of town and after the bridge was washed out west of town. Folks in town put the passengers up until the roads opened. Good thing it was just before Christmas and the stores were well stocked. And most folks had well stocked pantries and freezers.

We were lucky. Oakridge is in the Cascade foothills, elevation about 1,200 feet. We were at the head of the valley. Heading north the water piled up. Log jams, destroyed bridges, took out the ports in Gold Beach and Brookings, the waterfall at Oregon City disappeared.

Why tell this story now. Well it's part of my history. And it's a prime example of the amount of control human beings seem to believe they have over the natural world. We can build dikes and dams. And then Mother Nature comes along and reminds us who really is the boss. It can be a big reminder and we forget for awhile. Or it can be a gradual reminder like Climate change may work things out. Or one of these days a cat 5 is going to hit Miami. Any guesses how that will work out?