A Front Row Seat For Portland Flooding

Portland, Ore. — Portland houseboat owners have a front row seat to the current flood watch. Amy Sedgwick lives on the Multnomah Channel. She says she feels protected because she has an anti sway chain connected to the dock.

She says “when the water rises like this, the river’s very swift. So, if you have deficiencies  in your float under your house that you’ve just kind of let go over the years, that’s going to amplify that.” She says some people will occasionally lose a flotation block from underneath their house and nothing can be fixed until the river goes down.

She’s seen lots of debris float by and most of it is natural. However, she did see half of an old dock pass by and says a fire boat showed up to haul it away.

Sedgwick says the current river levels are nowhere near as high as they were during the floods of 1996.