Oregon Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy And Survival

True Stories of Tragedy and Survival

by Rachel Dresbeck

Twenty disasters spanning more than a century are brought to life in this engagingly written volume. Among the true accounts dramatically retold are the deadly Mount Hood avalanche of 1927, the 1933 Tillamook forest fire (one of the worst in U.S. history), the devastating tsunami of 1964, and the 1903 flash flood in Heppner, which carried away a fourth of the town's inhabitants.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

204 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2006

Reviews

[Punk · Rating 3 out of 5]

One hundred years of disasters, from 1903 to 2003—mostly natural disasters, one plane crash, and a bunch of boat wrecks—with a pretty generous definition of disaster, though not one that includes acts of malice.

I picked this up because it had a chapter on the Vanport flood, but there's nothing new here except it's more upfront about how little Portland wanted a bunch of black people to move in. Dresbeck also shows an awareness that people native to the area were here first before they were "crowded out by settlers from the east." So, an awareness, but maybe also a need to downplay what exactly that "crowding out" involved.

The chapters are short, about five to ten pages for each event, and the prose is clear and doesn't sensationalize. I was particularly affected by the stories on the Roseburg explosion in 1959, the crash of flight 173 in 1978, the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980, and the Episcopal School climb in 1986.

Mount Hood figures a lot in these stories. It's involved in three of the twenty-one disasters. That's a solid 14%. People are always dying up there, though in one of these stories only one person died, with several others wounded, and it involved no property damage or environmental catastrophe. Calling that a disaster is a stretch. Plus I did find at least one error (a transposed year), so part of this book is a reach and the rest, perhaps, needs some fact-checking.

The book doesn't have an index, but it does have a detailed table of contents and bibliographies for each chapter. There also are a few black and white photos with captions, but not every chapter gets one.

Kind of a weird way to learn more about your state's history, but I did learn some stuff, though it's more like two and a half stars.

[Carol Bakker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Floods, fires, blizzards, tsunami, slides, wrecks, crashes... what's not to love? Unfortunately, these misfortunes didn't grab me, and I think they should have. People faced perilous events and lost lives. I think the format is partly to blame. I'd rather read a full-length book on one event than short synopses of twenty.

I appreciated the first chapter about the Heppner flash flood of 1903. Heppner is in the region that I live, yet I never knew about Oregon's worst natural disaster that took the lives of a quarter of the town's population.

[SD · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is mildly interesting and makes me want to learn more about my adopted state. But there are so many little details that are wrong I can’t really recommend it except as a jumping off point for more reading (by a different author). If you know anything about Oregon history or geography this book will annoy you.

[Megan Andvik · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are many grammatical mistakes. I feel the author could have given each story a bit more attention. The stories are interesting but feel rushed with little depth. I would say this is a decent book to read to see what disasters you'd like to read about further, but in and of itself, it's not a great read.

[Nicola · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this collection of grizzly tales, not the best book ever but interesting snapshots in history of things worth being remembered.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting stories but it is the Siuslaw River and not the Yaquina River that empties into the Pacific at Florence (Chapter 6)

[Timothy Malm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Damn, Oregon has it really rough. But it only make me more curious about the state. And these moments that were captured were so intriguing. It’s crazy to think we exist in such a terrifying space.

[Mack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting little vignettes!

[H.S. Contino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book, but I found the writing style and organization of information confusing in places. For instance, the author would be talking about the events on a particular date (ie: a flood) then jump to the events several years prior then back to the original crisis. Overall, the book was an interesting read. I enjoyed learning more about Oregon's colorful history.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this book deals with disaster and tragedy, as I was working my way through it, the book was actually pretty inspiring. I learned a lot about Oregon history and more than I thought about why some local traditions and towns are the way they are. I really liked how the author highlighted some truly inspiring people and talked about how some of these disasters shaped the future of the state.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing in this book is hilarious. This chick thinks she's from 1901 and it makes it almost too distracting to read. But the disasters are cool and if you can just laugh at the language, it's good.