100:, 9 and 18 miles (14 and 29 km) downstream, respectively. The flood washed through Lexington at about 19:00, just before they arrived, destroying several buildings. Matlock and Kelly continued north to Ione, overtaking the flood and warning the bewildered residents to evacuate. No one was killed in Ione or Lexington. However, the floodwaters washed raw sewage from Heppner downstream, contaminating wells in both Lexington and Ione. As a result, at least 18 people died from
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to the west. Many people were able to escape to higher ground, but 247—nearly a quarter of
Heppner's population at the time—died. The waters finally receded around an hour later. Numerous houses in Heppner were destroyed, and around 140 total structures, about one-third of Heppner, were washed away.
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under the stress several minutes later. This sent a 15-to-50-foot (5 to 15 m) wall of water cascading down Willow Creek that quickly reduced many of
Heppner's structures to rubble. Some structures were ripped off their foundations and floated downstream. At its peak, over 36,000 cubic feet per
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climate and little vegetation coupled with the ground already being wet from a storm three days earlier caused very little water to be absorbed by the soil, and soon the streams were flooding. Within fifteen minutes after the rain began to fall, water rushed down the streams (mainly the Balm Fork),
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55:, on June 14, 1903. With a death toll of 247 people, it remains the deadliest natural disaster in Oregon, and the second deadliest flash flood in the United States, behind the 1889
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How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a
Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda
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After an exceptionally dry spring, strong thunderstorms moved over the
Heppner area on June 14, 1903. Torrential rain and hail began falling on the
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How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a
Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States
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After the flood inundated
Heppner, two of its residents, Les Matlock and Bruce Kelly, rode on horseback to warn the cities of
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was completed in 1983 to prevent such a flood in the future. It is the first major roller-compacted concrete dam.
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building on the southern edge of
Heppner built across Willow Creek acted as a dam when the water arrived,
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second (1,000 m/s) of water raced down Willow Creek, more than the average flow of the much larger
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of Willow Creek and two of its largest tributaries, Balm Fork and Hinton Creek, by 16:30. The region's
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Heppner's population did not completely recover to pre-1903 levels for several decades.
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Major flash flood along Willow Creek near
Heppner, Oregon, United States
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The flood led to flood control studies in 1962, 1965, and 1979. The
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426:. Guilford, Connecticut: Insiders' Guide. pp. 1–11.
227:""Without a Second's Warning"; The Heppner Flood of 1903"
43:responsible for destroying a large portion of
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607:1903 natural disasters in the United States
542:"Guide to the Walter S. Bowman photographs"
514:"14211720 Willamette River At Portland, OR"
489:"USGS 14034500 Willow Creek At Heppner, OR"
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143:"Oregon's Top 10 Weather Events of 1900s"
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465:. Oregon Climate Service. Archived from
167:Burt, Christopher; Stroud, Mark (2004).
335:"Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–"
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333:Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
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365:Calamity: the Heppner flood of 1903
121:captured images of the aftermath.
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521:United States Geological Survey
493:United States Geological Survey
370:University of Washington Press
104:over the next several months.
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225:DenOuden, Bob (Spring 2004).
327:American Antiquarian Society
307:American Antiquarian Society
582:Natural disasters in Oregon
572:Floods in the United States
231:Oregon Historical Quarterly
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546:Northwest Digital Archives
463:"Heppner Flood, May 1903"
420:Dresback, Rachel (2006).
75:towards Heppner. A steam
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368:. Seattle, Washington:
597:1903 natural disasters
173:. New York, New York:
59:and ahead of the 1972
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243:10.1353/ohq.2004.0080
33:Heppner flood of 1903
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469:on September 7, 2006
362:Byrd, Joann (2009).
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433:978-0-7627-3993-6
379:978-0-295-98941-9
273:on March 25, 2010
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61:Black Hills Flood
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549:. Retrieved
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473:November 21,
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41:Willow Creek
35:was a major
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551:October 20,
311:1700–1799:
291:1634–1699:
175:W.W. Norton
37:flash flood
566:Categories
125:References
68:watersheds
388:318672964
267:165263427
259:195326544
251:0030-4727
94:Lexington
23:Downtown
442:69680034
316:(1992).
296:(1997).
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81:failing
77:laundry
45:Heppner
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49:Oregon
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517:(PDF)
323:(PDF)
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263:S2CID
237:(1).
553:2013
528:2010
500:2010
475:2010
438:OCLC
428:ISBN
384:OCLC
374:ISBN
342:2024
279:2010
255:OCLC
247:ISSN
189:OCLC
179:ISBN
154:2010
98:Ione
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72:arid
31:The
239:doi
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
