Christmas flood of 1964

Not to be confused with Christmas Week flood of 1955.
Christmas flood of 1964
An aerial view of the flood, showing Willamette Falls and Oregon City
Date20 days
December 18, 1964 (1964-12-18) – January 7, 1965 (1965-01-07)
LocationCalifornia, Oregon, and Washington states

The Christmas flood of 1964 was a major flood in the United States' Pacific Northwest and some of Northern California between December 18, 1964, and January 7, 1965, spanning the Christmas holiday.[1]

Considered a 100-year flood,[2] it was the worst flood in recorded history on nearly every major stream and river in coastal Northern California and one of the worst to affect the Willamette River in Oregon. It also affected parts of southwest Washington, Idaho, and Nevada.[1][3]

In Oregon, 17 or 18 people died as a result of the disaster, and it caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.[3] The flooding on the Willamette covered 152,789 acres (61,831.5 ha).[4] The National Weather Service rated the flood as the fifth most destructive weather event in Oregon in the 20th century.[5]

California Governor Pat Brown was quoted as saying that a flood of similar proportions could "happen only once in 1,000 years," and it was often referred to later as the Thousand Year Flood.[1] The flood killed 19 people, heavily damaged or completely devastated at least 10 towns, destroyed all or portions of more than 20 major highway and county bridges, carried away millions of board feet of lumber and logs from mill sites, devastated thousands of acres of agricultural land, killed 4,000 head of livestock, and caused $100 million in damage in Humboldt County, California, alone.[6][7]

  1. ^ a b c Lucia, Ellis (1965). Wild Water: The Story of the Far West's Great Christmas Week Floods. Portland, Oregon: Overland West Press. OCLC 2475714.
  2. ^ "Lower Columbia River Basin" (PDF). United States Army Corps of Engineers. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 16, 2011. Retrieved December 31, 2010.
  3. ^ a b Dresbeck, Rachel (2006). "The Willamette River Flood". Oregon Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival. Guilford, Connecticut: Insiders' Guide. pp. 89–96. ISBN 978-0-7627-3993-6. OCLC 69680034.
  4. ^ Gregory, Stan; Ashkenas, L.; Jett, S.; Wildman, R. (2002). Willamette River Basin Planning Atlas – Flood Inundations/FEMA Floodplains (PDF) (2nd ed.). Corvallis, Oregon: Oregon State University Press. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-87071-542-6. OCLC 50591046. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 9, 2017. Retrieved April 27, 2018.Free access icon
  5. ^ "Oregon's Top 10 Weather Events of 1900s: Floods of December 1964 to January 1965". Portland, Oregon: National Weather Service Forecast Office. Retrieved December 31, 2010. Note: Surpassed only by the Heppner Flood of 1903, the Vanport Flood of 1948, the Columbus Day Storm of 1962, and the Tillamook Burn of 1933, 1939, 1945, and 1951.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Peak was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Flood! was invoked but never defined (see the help page).