A flood is a natural disaster that happens when there is more water in lakes, river, oceans, or when the ground can hold.

It was a housing development in the 1940s. It is now known as delta park all the way to PIR (Portland International Raceway) . It was home to 40,000 people 40% of which were African Americans. It was Oregon’s largest city and the largest housing development in the nation. After the war, the number of people dropped to 18,000. there was also a influx of returning ww2. in order attract more veterans, they opened up Vanport college. The first year it was opened, the enrollment number was a 2,000 students.

The vanport flood happened on May 30, 1948- it was memorial day. It was 4:05 in the afternoon, when the 200ft. Section of the dike gave in. By the nightfall the whole city was under water, killing 15 people. Vanport was built of low lands, so it was vulnerable to flooding. Making matter worse, an unusually amount of snow had accumulated in the Mts. Heavy rains and melting of the snow had happened with in days of may 30. it created high water that hadn’t been seen since the 1800’s.

“ REMEMBER:DIKES ARE SAFE AT PRESENT.YOU WILL BE WARNED IF NECESSARY.YOU WILL HAVE TIME TO LEAVE.DON'T GET EXCITED.”

Housing Authority of Portland issued this following statement.

. With this flood there was a ACT that came out that was called the Flood Control Act of 1950. This act helped to prevent future incidents. After the flood it helped the black community integrated into Portland’s society.

The after math of the flood, which destroyed a whole city, is now what we call delta park. With it being a holiday weekend, only 15 people died. The total damage was $ 21 million.The government response was criticized for how long it took them to help out due to racism towards african-americans.

References.1. Vanport city Oregon, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki.vanpor-city,_oregon2. Vanport Oregon, Oregon Historical Society, http://freepages.history.rootweb.ancestory,.com/~cchouk/vnport/3. The Vanport flood and Racial Change in Portland, Michael McGregor, Oregon Historical Society, http://www.ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/learning/Learning_center