The 1964 "Christmas" flood followed the pattern
familiar in Salem history: near- record snowfall followed
by record amounts of rain. Snow and freezing tem-peratures
early in the month gave way to warm temperatures and unrelenting
rain - all within a 48-hour period, Salem received four inches
of rain. Accumu-lated snow melted quickly and, with the rain,
created heavy runoff which swelled the Willamette and its
tributaries. By December 22nd, the Willamette was rising at
the rate of three inches per hour at Salem. Basements in the
City, including that of City Hall, were flooding, and storm
drains were clogged with chunks of ice and snow. The pressure
of the water rushing through the sewers sent "gushers"
shooting out of manholes and drains. Shelton Ditch and Mill
Creek overflowed their banks, and control dams on both were
working at full capacity.
Salem's main source of water at Stayton Island was flooded,
but auxiliary wa-ter supplies were holding up. Highways in
and around the City, including Inter-state 5, were closed
in places by high water. Still, at this point, Salem's flooding
was not considered serious. The River was expected to crest
at 27 feet, seven feet above flood stage, and recent dike
work was expected to prevent flooding at Keizer, thought to
be the area most vulnerable to high water.
All that changed on December 23rd. The Willamette crested
at 30 feet and stayed there for about three hours before dropping
off slightly. More than 300 Keizer homes were flooded by the
raging Willamette, and the National Guard, crews of local
firemen, and sheriff's deputies used helicopters, boats, and
even amphibious vehicles to evacuate more than 1,000 residents
from their sodden homes.
National Guardsmen also helped evacuate 121 patients from
Memorial Hospi-tal (formerly Deaconess), which again suffered
for its proximity to Pringle Creek. Despite pumping and sandbagging
by Oregon Correctional Institute crews, who worked through
the night, dikes around the Hospital were overrun by the creek,
and the basement quickly filled with water. According to a
Hos-pital official, the water rushed in and rose thereafter
at the rate of a foot an hour, until six feet of water stood
in the basement. At 7:30 a.m., a decision was made to evacuate
patients to Salem General Hospital, and the operation was
completed in two hours, with no complications. One premature
baby was re-moved from the hospital in its incubator; two
other babies were less than three hours old, but there were
no problems. Other medical buildings and homes along Pringle
Creek, including an apartment complex, were also flooded.
Salem's new $3 million sewage treatment plant was disabled
by floodwaters, and, although it remained structurally sound,
raw sewage began flowing directly into the Willamette River.
This happened at other locations along the river as well,
creating a major health threat. The State, armed with supplies
of typhoid vaccines, braced itself for problems, but fortunately
no epidemic resulted.
Boise-Cascade, Salem, was also hard hit by the floods again.
At the plant on Commercial Street, water filled the basement,
and 500 people were put out of work when the plant was knocked
out of operation. There was considerable damage to equipment
at the plant, and logs in the river were broken loose by raging
waters. Part of a chip pile was washed away.
Downtown businesses suffered when flood waters hit with little
advance warn-ing. According to one business manager, as late
as 11:00p.m. the night before, the water level seemed to have
dropped, the danger past. But between 3 and 4 a.m., the waters
suddenly rose in a "wave" while employees tried
in vain to save what they could. Some businesses reported
up to 30 inches of water; at West Coast Grocery, stores of
food were lost to flood waters. The 7-Up bottling plant at
402 Church Street reported water 4-1/2 feet deep, equipment
and trucks underwater, and vats of citric acid polluted by
flood waters. A boat was needed to recover records from the
welfare offices, where waters were waist-high.
Agricultural losses in and around Salem were high as well,
due in part to the fact that the ground had not been able
to thaw before the floods hit. The ground, unable to absorb
even a normal amount of rainfall, had its thawed up-per layer
washed away in the flooding. This meant a permanent loss of
topsoil to the rich agricultural lands around Salem; Marion
and Polk Counties suffered some of the most severe damage
in the State. In addition, farming and irrigation equipment
and fences were washed away or damaged. Drainage ditches and
newly planted crops were destroyed. Flood-caused erosion was
heavy. In Marion County, agricultural damage exceeded $10
million.
In West Salem, a 35-man crew built 100 feet of dike between
Musgrave Ave-nue and the railroad track but, by Christmas
Eve, water was seeping through the barrier. West Salem's main
intersection, at Wallace Road and Edgewater, was under three
feet of water on Christmas Eve. The river was 4-1/2 feet above
Edgewater Street. Residents went without water for a short
time after a 24-inch water main on the Marion Street Bridge
was hit and broken open by a log on the River.
And in South Salem, a small plane carrying three men crashed
about two miles south of McNary Field. The trio on board included
a Salem pastor and two friends who had gone up to get a view
of the flooding; all three men were dead at the scene.
On Christmas Eve, Salem received about a half-inch of rain,
and Christmas Day brought another wave of heartbreak as the
River crested a second time, at 29.5 feet. Evacuees crowded
the Red Cross shelter in Salem, where volunteers and local
business people helped Santa Claus bring gifts to displaced
children.
The Capital Journal newspaper noted that, without
the seven flood control dams on the Willamette River, the
River would have crested at 37.5 feet at Salem rather than
30 feet. Even still, the Christmas Week Flood was the worst
flood of the Twentieth Century, with damages exceeding those
of the Columbus Day Storm. Governor Mark Hatfield declared
the entire State an emergency disaster area, and called the
flooding, "the worst disaster ever to hit the state."
Compiled and written by Kathleen Clements Carlson
Bibliography:
Oregon Statesman, December 22-27, 1964
Capital Journal, December 21-27, 1964
Capital Journal, January 4, 1965
Taylor, George and Raymond R. Hatton. The Oregon Weather
Book: A
State of Extremes. Corvallis: Oregon State University,
1999.
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