December 05, 2003
Vanport: The Survivors Tale
Premiering tomorrow afternoon at the Hollywood Theatre is Vanport: The Survivors Tale:
Students from Portland Public Schools with mentors from Portlan[d]'s Creative Services Community researched, produced and filmed the stories of the Vanport flood survivors of 1949, who helped shed light on the war years and the town of Vanport, Oregon. The event is free and open to the public.
Doors open at 1:30 PM, with the film starting at 2:00 PM. The Hollywood Theatre is located at 4122 NE Sandy Boulevard.
Comments (3)
Carol V on 03 Nov 2004
I am a Vanport Survivor. I was five years old at the time of the "big flood". Luckily we had gone to the Portland Zoo for the day and weren't home when "disaster struck". I remember getting to the bridge, seeing all the houses in the water and being so surprised!
SHELLY MEADOWS on 07 Nov 2004
My mother Edith Meadows now was Edith Thomas then lived in Vanport ans was there the day of the flood. She and her then husband Glenn Thomas and my older brothers Dennis Sidders, Charles Thomas, Elgin Thomas, all lived there. My uncle Jack Thorne was also there and helped sand bag the dike. My grand parents Walter and Hannah Thorne lived there during the war and the whole family worked in the ship yards including my mother who was underage at the time. My mother has nightmares about the flood to this day. She is now in her late 70's. She vivedly recalls the flood. We live in Wichita KS. My mother had 10 children I am #8 but I have heard about the flood all my life and there is a photograph in a family album of it. I dont beleive she has been back since 6 months after the flood. The whole family was originally from oklahoma. They went to oregon in search of work.
Bonnie Simmonds on 03 Sep 2005
I was 7 years old, the oldest of 3 children. When the sirens went off, I remember my mother taking the 3 of us outside and we got into someone's car and got away, we did not have a car of our own. My father stayed to collect a few things, and jumped onto the back of a truck as it was passing by. He said he could see the water coming down the street behind the truck. I don't remember if he ever did retrieve any items. My family moved into the 2nd floor of a house in Portland. I can remember a pile of clothes on the floor that had been donated by someone, probably Salvation Army or Red Cross. I attended school in Portland for 1 year, then we moved back to where we came from, Duluth, MN. Watching the coverage on the New Orleans hurricane (Sept 2005) inspired me to seek out information on the Vanport flood. Besides the memory of getting into the car to escape, the most vivid memory I have of Vanport was putting tin cans on my feet and running down the wooden sidewalks with other kids. I think we did this on Sunday mornings because the streets were quiet and we could make a lot of noise. One of my brothers has lived in the Portland area all his adult life, having served in the Navy and marrying a Portland girl. I have stayed in Duluth.