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