New Orleans Levee Finally Fixed High death toll feared among of 'community service S IO W p r o g r e s s ‘City of Roses’ Established in 1970 Committed to Cultural Diversity Volume XXXV. Number 37 T,Weekin TheReview A plan to move some Hurricane Katrina evacuees from the Hous ton Astrodome to cruise ships was postponed Tuesday because many didn’t want to go. Officials had planned to begin moving about 4,000 evacuees on Tuesday to cruise ships docked at ports on the G ulf of Mexico. See related Wednesday • September 7, 2005 G ulf coast disaster hits close to home story, page A2. Kanye West Blasts Bush : by black people" and said America u as set y W r up “to help the poor, the black people and the less well- o ff as slow as possible” during a live hurricane relief broadcast Fri day on NBC. W est’s comment about the president was cut from NBC’s W est Coast airing, which showed three hours later on tape. E r ik a - L e k , it G oodwin l ilt PoRI I ANDO bs I -RVI R mgm In the wake of H urricane HH Katrina’s devastation, Portland’s African American community has been hit close to home. HW Supreme Court Justice Dies < alter, origin,ills from Sbreseport. Rev. Matt Hennessee and Sen. Margaret Carter go to work coordi nating local relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Katrina. « Several area residents have fami lies and loved ones in the areas affected by the natural disaster and people are feeling the need to do more. The hurricane and flooding has left hundreds of thousands of people homeless in Louisiana. Mis sissippi and Alabama. . Oregon State Sen. Margaret l On Tuesday, Supreme Court ju s tices led a somber line of Ameri cans paying their last respects to William H. Rehnquist, the chief ju s tic e w h o se c o n se rv a tism helped drive the high court to ward the right. Rehnquist died Saturday at 80 after battling thy roid cancer. See page A2. J : J |§||8g l.a.. has a personal interest in the i8 H | relief effort. Her niece Yurico Iraq Stampede Kills Hundreds More than 719 Shiite pilgrims were killed and 383 were injured last W ednesday when a railing on an Iraq bridge collapsed during a re lig io u s p ro c e ssio n , se n d in g scores into the Tigris River. There were reports that the stampede may have been caused when some one in the crowd shouted there w as a suicide bomber among them. Gas Prices Halt Travel www.portlandobserver.com Rallying Local Relief Astrodome Evacuees Stay O utspoken rapper K.in\e West claimed "G e o rg e Bush doesn't care about | | | | ^ See Page A2 ' Claiborne was able gather 13 rela- HHH lives as the storm approached and the\ all sur\ i\ed In running a four H | car caravan to Columbus, Ga. Cur- rently, her niece is one o f three adults re sponsible for the health and well being of 8 children and 3 disabled adults. “I had great fear that she had been a victim o f the floods,” Carter said. Because the phone lines were down and/ or busy, Carter was unable to contact her niece and other loved ones until W ednes day. “Those were very emotionally charged and very sad days,” Carter said. “I was beyond disbelief and certainly very desper ate to get in touch with my fami ly as the water PHOTO BY E rika -L eigh G ixidwin / T he P ortland O bserver continued to rise. The extended family was able to afford only three rooms at the rate of $269 a night. Three adults whoqualify for unemployment insurance are only eligible to receive $289 a week per person. With no money for food or Gospel Concert for Survivors An Amazing Grace Relief Concert to benefit Hurricane Katrina survivors who are being relocated to Portland will be held Friday at 7 p.m. at Vancouver Avenue Baptist Church, 3138 N. Vancouver Ave. Attendees are encouraged to bring do nations o f money, non-perishable food and clothing. For more information, call the church at 503-282-9496. gas, coupled with the fact that their weekly benefits barely cover the cost o f shelter, their situation like so many other hurricane survivors can seem hopeless and bleak. She has set up a family fund for her niece to assist them until the Red Cross can pro vide more relief. But the agonizing reality is that Carter’s family members are some o f the Iuckierciti- zens who have been struck by this tragedy. Continuing images o f children and the continued 'y f on page A6 Parallels to New Orleans Tragedy Labor Day traffic slowed around the country as many drivers paid 30 percent more than before Hur ricane K atrina disrupted G ulf Coast refinery and pipeline opera tions a week ago. Drivers paid an average of about $3.20 a gal Ion for unleaded regular on Monday and 75 cents more than they did before the hurricane. Survivor looks back on Vanport flood 3m U.S. Jets Attack Targets U.S. jets struck targets Tuesday near the Syrian border where al- Q aida has expanded its pres ence, and civilians fled fighting in the northern city o f Tai Afar, com plaining they were running short o f food and water. As of M onday, at least 1,889 members o f the U.S. m ilitary have died since the beginning o f the Iraq w ar in M arch 2003. O regon H istorical S ociety photo A historical photo o f the aftermath o f the Vanport Flood. Vanport, once the second largest city in Oregon, was obliterated in less than a day when the dike for the Columbia River broke. by K atherine B i . ackmorf . T he P ortland O bserver Ed W ashington was only 12 years old when the infam ous Vanport Flood of 1948 took every- thing his family had - beyond their lives and their hope. Today he is seeing families in New Orleans experience a travesty similar to the one he went through, “It's a calamity. My heart aches for those people," W ashington said. “There are obviously lots o f parallels. The magnitude is nocom- parison, but people are sharing the same kinds of issues, the same sense of loss." More than 50 years ago, Vanport. located betw een P ortland and Vancouver, was once the second largest city in Oregon and the larg- est housing project in the nation, But on May 30,1948, the dike hold- ing back the Columbia River gave way and the city, situated 15-feet below water level, was engulfed in a devastating flood. A community that had once housed 50,000 people was literally wiped off the map and 15 people were killed, Washington, now the Commu- nity Liaison for Diversity Initiatives at Portland State University and a former Portland Metro Councilor, recalled the disbelief his mother had at the idea that Vanport could be obliterated by water, The rivers, he said, had been I photo by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver Ed Washington, a survivor o f the 1948 Vanport Flood, stands in a field that was once part o f the city of Vanport, destroyed by Columbia River floodwaters. rising steadily before the flood oc curred. but the community was told the dike would hold for a few days until theColumbia River could crest over. People went about their busi ness, having picnics and getting ready for the school year. Curious to see exactly how high the river was rising that day. They were only able to pack a suitcase with some clothes and important documents before the family rushed up to what is now Interstate 5. There, they stood and watched as a huge wave wiped out their belongings, their neighbor continued on page A 6