More than two decades later, the scars left by a cruel, raging river are still evident on Southeast Dogwood Lane.

In early February 1996, a confluence of natural forces turned the Willamette River from a peaceful neighbor into a monster. In a matter of hours, the murky waters of one of Oregon's worst floods swallowed the tree-blanketed street between Milwaukie and Gladstone.

"No one around here wants to talk about it," said a man answering the door at a graystone home. "We stayed, but it's still too painful. Seriously."

Without another word, he closed his door.

He was right: People on Dogwood Lane are reluctant to revisit a storm that warped, soiled and splintered their quiet middle-class existence two decades ago this week.

In reality, the powerful floodwaters of 1996 ravaged thousands of lives from Oregon City to Corvallis. Eight people died. Businesses were destroyed. Livestock drowned in Clackamas and Tillamook counties. Homes floated away. President Bill Clinton declared a state of emergency.

Downtown Portland was saved by an army of volunteers, who used sheets, plastic and sandbags to erect "Vera's Wall" after the river creeped over the harbor wall along the waterfront.

Amazingly, it probably wasn't a once-in-lifetime flood in the Willamette Valley, said National Weather Service hydrologist Andy Bryant. "It will happen again," he said.

Here's a historical flashback to the Great Flood of '96.

How it happened

No one saw the historic flood coming.

Historic Willamette River crests

Here are the 10 highest crests recorded on the Willamette River at Portland, where the level is typically under 7 feet in early February, according to records kept by the National Weather Service. Flood stage is 18 feet.

(1) 33.00 ft on 06/07/1894

(2) 30.00 ft on 06/14/1948

(3) 30.00 ft on 06/01/1948

(4) 29.80 ft on 12/25/1964

(5) 28.70 ft on 02/06/1890

(6) 28.55 ft on 02/09/1996

(7) 28.20 ft on 06/24/1876

(8) 27.30 ft on 07/01/1880

(9) 26.40 ft on 06/04/1956

(10) 26.20 ft on 06/14/1882

A crazy combination of weather events contributed to its severity.

Abnormally high rainfall that saturated the soil and had rivers running high in January.

Heavy snowfall in the mountains in late January.

A weeklong deep freeze in the valley. A headline in the Feb. 2, 1996, Oregonian read: "Cold weather makes plumbers hot item." The same issue carried a story about Richard Waitt of the Cascades Volcano Observatory speaking on the ice-age Missoula Floods.

On Feb. 6, 1996, a warm Pineapple Express jetstream melted the snow while bringing a heavy deluge of rain. That was the trigger.

Within hours, every body of water in the region and many on the Oregon Coast suddenly went to flood stage and beyond.

"You can get pretty major flooding just from heavy rainfall," said National Weather Service hydrologist Andy Bryant. "Even with the 1996 flood, 70 to 80 percent was due to heavy rain with the snow melt."

Translation: Any given Oregon winter is just a cold snap followed by a Pineapple Express away from another biblical flood.

Memorable quotes

"In some areas over the last few days, almost a foot of rain has fallen." -- Meteorologist Valerie Voss on CNN, which covered the Oregon flooding around the clock.

''I think I'm going to lose it.'' -- Jim Pearson, watching the log cabin he spent three years building teetering along the Zigzag River.

"There was nothing they could do - nothing. She was gone.'' -- Sharon Elliott, grandmother of 8-year-old Amber Ashley Bargfrede, who drowned while wading through the waters to pick up her grandparents' mail.

''I'm a perennial optimist. I pray a lot, too. It's in the hands of God now.'' -- Bill Naito, owner of several Old Town buildings, as the Willamette River threatened to breach Portland's seawall.

''We didn't know this morning that we'd get the job done. Thank you! Thank you so much!'' -- Portland Mayor Vera Katz, calling out to hundreds of sand-bagging volunteers as she ran by in running shoes along the temporary barrier of plywood and 40,000 sandbags protecting downtown.

"If you look at this wall behind us, it seems to me that it is a symbol of what our country does when everybody pulls together and works together and forgets about their differences and focuses their attention and their hearts and their minds." -- President Bill Clinton, standing in front of "Vera's Wall" along Tom McCall Waterfront Park during his visit on Feb. 14, 1996.

President Bill Clinton surveying the devastation of the Willamette Valley flood on Feb. 14, 1996.

Flood of 1996 numbers

7.12 inches: Precipitation in Portland from Feb. 1-13

5.35 inches: Normal average for all of February

18: Number of Oregon counties declared federal disaster areas

21,843: People evacuated

10,089: Number of damaged homes in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana

760: Number of cattle killed in Tillamook County

More than 100: Mudslides in Portland

50,000: Weight in tons of mudslide on Interstate 84 east of Troutdale

$27 million: Highway damage in Portland/Salem areas

40,000: Sandbags along Portland harbor wall

600: Plywood sheets

438: Highway dividers (Jersey barriers)

664,600: Sandbags dispensed by Army Corps of Engineers

26: Oregon rivers reaching or exceeding flood stage

6,008: People sheltered by Red Cross

797: Oregon National Guard soldiers on duty

180: Points along state highways closed by mud or water

Seriously damaged: The Oregon City navigation locks at Willamette Falls, which all but disappeared in the swollen river.

The Willamette Falls in Oregon City all but disappeared in the February 1996 flood, severely damaging the navigation locks.

Flood of 1996 toll

The Flood of '96 killed eight Oregonians, four on one day alone.

Lessons

Storage dams on tributaries and other flood control projects in the Willamette Basin during the 1930s worked exactly as designed, said William F. Willingham, historian for the U.S. Corps of Engineers.

In February 1996, the Corps used the tributary dams to manipulate flows and hold back water, which likely eased flooding by two feet in Portland and prevented an additional $1.1 billion in flood damage, Willingham said.

"It would have had a far more devastating effect on the economy," he said. "The city's bridges would have been in greater danger, too."

Two decades later, however, climate change is changing the calculations of what goes into a 100-year flood, Willingham said. “We’re in a very unpredictable age now,” he said.

-- Joseph Rose 503-221-8029 jrose@oregonian.com

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