Ninety-two miles an hour. That was the top wind speed officially recorded in Vancouver by C.J. Moss, veteran weather observer, in Friday's ruinous storm.

Moss might get a lot of argument from bereft residents who thought they saw their properties flying away a lot faster than that. And of course, it was pointed out, the wind gusts were not necessarily of the same intensity every where. But what went by the official recording station was doing just 90-plus.

The Portland Weather Bureau clocked winds at 80 miles per hour midway through the storm before power failure stopped their equipment.

They report that winds fell 25 to 40 miles per hour three hours after the first major gusts blew over the Vancouver-Portland area.

Advance warning of the approaching wind storm was issued by the Portland Weather Bureau at 10 a.m. Friday. The Portland Weather Bureau issued bulletins on the oncoming storm. Apparently most residents failed to get the information.

By October 15, it was reported that if luck held out for the bone weary crews working on the power outage, that half of the Clark County Public Utility customers would have light and power again. They hoped to restore power to the remaining 17,000 or so by the coming weekend.

Read memories from people who experienced this terrific storm.

 

Columbus Day Storm, Oct 12, 1962, I was 3 years old. I remember watching in horror as the wind picked up my swing set into the air..the storm was taking my swing set away...that was traumatic (words I didn't know back then) for me..the wind then whirled my swing set around 180 degrees (also words I didn't know back then either!) and set it back down almost in the same holes it had come out of.

Shortly after the stormed passed my parents and I went to see my mother's sister and her husband in "K" Falls to see the damage there. I remember dad lifting me high up on his shoulders so I could see above the crowds of people to look at all the cars that were trapped in the underpass and under water. I could see the tops of the cars and the radio antennas that were sticking up.

My dad came home early that day to make sure that mom and I were to stay inside of the house. He (was a minister) was going out to help get people off of the streets and to safe places. He said people were scared and wouldn't stay in their houses. Of course in the mind of a 3 year old I just thought silly people why don't they do what they are told!

Dawn
June 30, 2008

 

I can't believe that we all lived through a piece of history. I was 8 years old and living in Medford, Oregon. I remember watching the wind and rain blowing across the road and I remember looking out of my bedroom window and watching my dad out in the pasture trying to make sure the corral gates were closed, which didn't do a lot of good.

We lost a number of trees including a 100 year old Chinese Elm tree which fell causing a domino effect on several other trees including one that came through my bedroom window.

After all was said and done, my best friend's brothers came over and helped my dad cut up all of the downed trees in our yard, the neighbor's yard and in the street.

anonymous
June 3, 2008

 

I read the article online about the 1962 Columbus Day storm with interest, as I remember it clearly.

I was in the 5th grade at Rooseveldt Elementary School in North Bend, Oregon.

The sky turned yellowish green in the afternoon, then the wind started. My classroom had windows along the side the wind came from. Our teacher had us sit along the far wall on the floor under the blackboard, as branches were hitting the windows.

When school was dismissed, our teachers and other adults formed a line down the walk to the street, as the school sat up on a rise, to hand the children from adult to adult as the wind was so strong that children could not stay on their feet.

My sister was in PE at the junior high when the power went off. The students were in the locker room and very frightened.

I can remember seeing a child holding onto the pickets of our fence at home and blowing sideways in the wind.

My dad worked at the paper mill north of town. At high tide waves were breaking over the road and he was unable to get home until low tide.

Our power was out for days, we lost our roof and fence. We received no warning of this storm.

Lova McMahon
April 7, 2008

 

We just had a storm blow through Yuba City CA that reminded me of the Columbus Day Storm of 62. I found your site when researching the storm.

I was in Centralia staying with my grandmother for the week up on the top of Cook Hill. My memories (I was 4) are of my grandmother and I standing in the open doorway watching the wind blow like crazy. And they day after we still didn't have electricity so she drove into town to go to a friends house so I could take a bath..Oh yeah and a huge tree fell on one of her friends house down the hill.

Not much, but hey I was only 4!

Alison Saner
January 6, 2008

 

I was a 9 year old fourth grader living in a 3 bedroom house on East 20th Street in Albany, Oregon on that fateful day.? I lived with my parents and three younger sisters ages 8, 6, and 4.? As all mom's back then, my mom was a stay-at-home mom and my dad worked in a plywood mill the other side of Corvallis.? My grandfather who lived in Falls City, was at our house because he and my dad were planning to leave for a weekend hunting trip after my dad returned home from work that night.? My mom had been in the kitchen cooking all day to prepare food for the men to take with them on their hunting trip.

I will never forget how dark the sky became that afternoon.? We watched through our living room window as roof shingles ripped off the houses along with tree limbs, and swirled in the dark sky.? Some of the flying debris hit one of the small windows below our picture window and the small window broke.? When it became obvious that this wasn't just "any old storm", my mom secured our safety by closing all the bedroom and bathroom doors.? She put our little chairs from the table and chair set that my dad had built for us in the hallway and made the four of us girls stay in the center of the house.? That hallway was cold and dark like being in a cave.? We could hear the wind howling and the debris banging against the house.? No matter how scared I was, I was the "big sis", and I felt it was my responsibility to be brave and calm the younger ones.? I can remember my youngest sister, who was four, crying hysterically. I've since shared this story with her and she doesn't remember.

My dad had a rough drive home, but he made it safely.? Upon arriving home, my mom joined my dad outside and the two of them attempted to nail sheets of plywood over the outside windows on the front of the house where most of the wind was coming from.? I don't recall if they were able to get all the windows boarded up, but the large window in the living room was their main concern and they were able to secure that one.

Because of the fact that my mom had been cooking all day for the men to go hunting and we had camping equipment, we were able to have plenty of hot food over the next few days while the community utilities people were trying to restore the power.

I will never forget when we were able to venture out of hiding the next day.? The six foot wooden fence that had been around our backyard was completely torn down.? My dad had a stack of plywood sheets in the back of the backyard.? However, all were gone.? It appeared that the wind had just lifted the plywood one sheet at a time and each blew away like a magic carpet.? Our bicycles there blown all over the yard too.? Over the next few days, we were able to drive through town and out into the country to witness the damage first hand.? I will never forget all the uprooted trees and crushed buildings and cars.? All the years since I've grown up, that storm will stick in my mind as one of my most traumatic experiences ever.? Thank you for giving me and others the opportunity to share our stories.

Jeannine (Murrell) Yesko
Hagerstown, MD
December 14, 2007

 

I was ten years old; it was the beginning of my 5th grade year, and I was walking home from Lieser School, in Vancouver, Washington. I noticed that the air was very odd. The sky looked yellow and everything was still and silent. Heavy. It was very odd. I stood at the corner of Lieser Road and MacArthur Blvd., where my street, St. Helens Ave., intersected, and I remember looking in all directions, noticing and wondering about the strange weather, and walking on home.

Fast forward a few hours and I was finishing up my ballet class in downtown Vancouver. My parents picked me up and we were going out to dinner. We went to a Chinese Restaurant not far from the dance studio. I remember that I was very very hungry and I couldn't wait for the chow mien. My stomach was growling. It was getting dark outside.

We ordered, but it seemed like it was taking forever for the food to arrive. There was a group in another booth, but they left before getting their food and my parents said they must have been worried about getting home in the storm. But we decided to stick it out. Suddenly the lights went out -- everything in the restaurant was pitch black. We wondered if we were going to get our food. But food had been prepared, so we got to eat. It may have been something different from what we ordered, but we didn't mind. We couldn't really see the food anyway; it was too dark. They brought out candles and we hastily ate our chow mien. Our family -- my dad, mom and younger sister and I -- were the only customers. At that point, with food finally going into my belly, it all seemed like an interesting adventure.

It was windy when we went in, but storms and power outages weren't all that uncommon. I was just a child, but I don't believe my parents or the other adults in the community had any idea of what was coming.

By the time we left, it was getting very very windy. We ran to the car (1951 Ford) and as we drove out of town, store front windows were "popping" left and right. "Look, that window just popped!" "Look! there's another one!" We drove home in blackness; there was no electricity anywhere in the city. Our headlights illuminated flying leaves, branches, and black snake-like power lines, freed from their poles, that whipped across our path and slapped at the car. We were stopped at one point by a huge Douglas fir that had fallen across the main boulevard; we had to drive around it and take another route home.

I don't remember the sounds. It must have been crashing all around us. I think my parents must have had the car radio on, too, trying to get the news.

Our single story home on St. Helens Avenue had been brand new when my parents bought it in 1954. It was one of those 3-bedroom track homes build to accommodate the growing ranks of post-war baby boom families. Behind it rolled an empty field and our dining room had a panorama view of the city of Portland across the Columbia River. We didn't have a basement. The four of us huddled in the darkness, together in my parents' bedroom. I don't remember being frightened, but I think my 9-year old sister was. My parents must have been scared, too, but I didn't know it.

The next morning we awoke to crystal clear blue skies and sunshine. It was such a beautiful day, and we toured the neighborhood, surveying the damage. We were lucky. The only thing we lost was a young tree my dad had planted the year before. Some people lost entire roofs off their houses. Many lost shingles and huge trees that blocked roads and crushed homes and cars. We were warned to stay away from downed power lines, and we thought of all the potential live wires we had come in contact with the night before.

Back at school stories were exchanged. The one I remember most vividly was about the family a few blocks from us, gathered for dinner when a tree fell through the roof, right across the middle of their dining room table, and no one was hurt!

It is interesting to read what other people have to say about their experiences that day. So few seem to remember, or even know that it happened at all. But around here it used to be said that everyone remembers where they were when President Kennedy was shot, and on the day of the Columbus Day storm.

Terry Benge
October 14, 2007

 

I was eight years old in 1962. I lived (and still do) in Gladstone, Oregon about 12 miles south of Portland.

I don't recall whether they let us out of school early because of the approaching storm, but I do remember the walk home. I put my hands in my jacket pockets and felt like I could fly up the hill to my home.

When my sister and I got home, our mother and infant brother were there but my dad was still at work. He worked for Portland General Electric as a truck driver for line crews, so he was right in the thick of the massive effort required to get the Portland area out of the dark.

As the winds grew in intensity, my mother fixed dinner and kept an eye on the weather. Our power went off shortly after dinner which added to her worries but fueled the sense of adventure in my sister and I.

We kept going toward the north facing living room window to see what was happening outside. In our neighbor's front yard was an oak tree about two feet in diameter and about 50 to 60 feet tall. We had one about the same size in our yard. As my sister and I watched, the neighbor's tree toppled as though a giant had struck it with a single blow of a mighty ax. It fell straight across the street and took down power lines as it went. I don't know if I have embellished this over the years, but it seems as though a car traveling down the street had to stop suddenly to avoid being crushed by tons of wood.

When my mother saw that the tree had fallen, she made us move to the back of the house because she just knew that our tree would be next. It wasn't. That tree is still standing today and I can imagine that it regales the younger trees in the neighborhood with stories of how it defied nature's onslaught that night.

We huddled together through the night, my sister and I thinking that it was quite an adventure. My poor mother was frantic because she could not get hold of my father. I don't know how she warmed bottles for my little brother that night.

When we got up in the morning, my grandparents came by to check on us. They lived on the northeast side of Mount Tabor and had not experienced the high winds that we had, so they still had lights and their telephone and could not understand what all the fuss was about until they came around to the south and west side of the hill. We ended up staying with them for a few days.

My father did not come home from work for any significant length of time for at least a week after the storm. He, and his co-workers, got sleep where and when they could. He tells the story of how his crew was working out on NE Sandy near Sylvia's Italian Restaurant and Sylvia came out and personally invited them to return for a meal on the house after they got power restored.

David
Gladstone, Oregon
October 13, 2007

 

In 1962 I was a sophomore at Hudson's Bay High School in Vancouver, on the JV football team. On Friday the 12th we had a practice (the varsity had a game that night).

At practice we noticed the wind picking up but the coaches (and we players) ignored it until a large fir branch broke off (probably 4 inches in diameter and 15 feet long) and did not fall down but sailed across the practice field, track and small parking lot then landed on the street. That was enough. Practice canceled, get cleaned up and home fast! I think I hitched a ride to Minnehaha.

At home my younger sister was holding down the fort. Our dad was working at a body shop and our mother at the cannery. The wind really started picking up. It blew in the front door. I placed a large overstuffed chair against the door. It blew in again. I repositioned the chair against the door and sat in the chair. I spent the rest of the storm sitting in that chair. We heard a loud crash, the wind had blown off the front porch.

We had large cottonwood trees in front of our house and they would bend, but not break. They were bending so far their limbs were hitting the house.

Our mother made it home first. We had lost our lights by then and she said the shingles on the roof were being ripped off. By the time our dad came home trees were down all over the city and no one had power.

I remember the next day as being very calm, blue sky, and quite pleasant. We borrowed spare shingles from an uncle and patched the roof (many colors). Helped neighbors cut up downed trees and fix broken windows.

Do not remember how many days we were without power, but we had a wood stove and plenty of camping equipment and made the best of it.

There are very few things that happen that sear their memory into your brain, but this storm is one for me.

Dennis Laine
Olympia
September 6, 2007

 

It being Columbus Day brought back the memory of the Columbus Day Store. I as a young girl ran out side and right away my dress flew up over my face and as I hurried back into the house I saw trees bending over and every ones TV antennae starting to fall.

V. Jackson
October 8, 2007

 

My parents were shopping in Portland and I came home from Kindergarten and my older brother was at the house. The power went out and my parents still did not get home.

Then the phones went out. I was mad because I couldn’t watch Bugs Bunny because the power was out. My parents were trapped in Vancouver because trees had fallen over the Evergreen Highway and they could not get home to us in Washougal.

The wind was blowing so hard that our picture window was bowing in but not breaking. My brother pulled the curtains and wedged some two by fours into the window. What he did probably saved it from breaking. We had a fireplace and so he built a fire.

Eventually some of the neighbors ended up at our house because we had heat and because they were afraid the fir trees in their front yard were going to fall on their house. We did not have any big trees in our yard.

My brother and I were home for two days before my parents could get back to us. My mother was frantic. I was 5 and my brother was 15.

My best memory of the storm is that I got to eat Cocoa Puffs for dinner. I thought that was pretty cool.

Laryn Dole
July 20, 2007

 

I was also in that terrible Columbus Day storm. I was living in Hillsboro at the time going home to Portland on the greyhound bus.

I can still see the devastation of the trees on fire, power lines falling down, winds were so strong breaking branches off the trees.

Somehow I made it there & my Dad had to walk from S.E. Portland over the Hawthorne bridge to pick me up.

I was so worried being there alone at the depot, then he arrived.

Carlyn Jones/Sullivan
July 15, 2007

 

Memories of that storm continue to this day and I have lived in California for most of my lift, only one in Oregon and that happened to be my luck to experience that storm.

We lived in a cul-de-sac across the street from a forested area in Glascow or perhaps Oregon City. Great memories of the woods, of snow that winter, of lots of kids as pals, rodents, snakes, pheasants, whatnot.

The clearest memories that linger are of those douglas fir trees that had fallen, of the smell of them, the nosie of chain saws, constantly trying to remove them. Of the fires we had to cook food.

Of course the frightening wind and flying roof shingles is what scared us all. The wind howeled all night, never ending it seemed. We all huddled in one room. Dad stuck in downtown Portland. We were left for two days to shift for ourselves.

David McCrary
Los Angeles
June 24, 2007

 

On that Columbus Day I was a junior in high school. I had stayed after school to work on a project. Mr. Douglas was going to be grading papers after school and I had arranged to work on the project for a while after school. Usually I got out of school at 15:10. It was about 16:20 when I left to walk home. I attended Jefferson High School and we lived near Union Avenue and Lombard in northeast.

Upon leaving the school I noticed how calm and warm it was dor October. The sky was jet black, not just a black cloud but the whole sky and there were yellow streaks across. Never since have I seen that. About the time I was down to Union Avenue and Ainsworth St. the wind started. Things began flying around and I was hit a few times but made it home OK. We watched the garage across the street until it got dark. The wind would lift it off the ground a couple of feet and set it back down. The next day the garage was gone. It might have been found in Vancouver(?) but it was nowhere to be found. There was a lot of damage, another house had a tree in it and the next house had the roof off. All the power poles were down and there was np lights. Amazingly the phone worked when nothing else did. All the wires and poles were lying in the street.

Our house lost all the windows on the south side. Dad and I were building a second bathroom in the basement and had the plywood for the walls in our garage. When the windows broke I went out to get the plywood and board-up the windows. Our garage faced north so there was no problem opening the door. When comming out of the garage with a sheet of plywood the wind caught it and me and I went sailing. With the plywood on the ground I managed to get it behind the house where the wind held it as I nailed it over the windows. It was necessary to get four sheets of plywood out there to board-up the windows.

Anyone who was there in 1962 will always remember where they were and what they were doing during the storm.

Cliff W West
Rainier Oregon
June 5, 2007

 

At the time of the storm I was 7 years old, living in Coquille, Oregon in the 2nd grade at Lincoln Elementary School.

The most vivid memories I have of the storm that hit that day, late in the afternoon was of walking home from school, thinking all this wind was really cool, and flying backwards by holding the ends of my open coat like a cape and being blown backwards and lifted off the ground.

After arriving at home we were told to stay inside and away from the windows. Sometime around dark the power went out, looking back on it now the power may have been out earlier, I don't think the TV worked when I got home, and we did our homework on the living room floor by candle light. It was hard to sleep that night due to the noise from the wind and the tree limbs breaking.

In the morning after the worst of the wind had died down we went outside, the storm hit on Friday, and ran around the neighborhood and looked at all the trees blown down and uprooted. Especially vivid was a giant Douglas fir, half a block from our house that was uprooted and the exposed root ball was at least 15 feet in diameter. I don't remember any houses in the area being damaged but I sure remember all the trees being blown down. When you are 7 your whole world is the neighborhood.

Kent
February 13, 2007

 

I was a second grader at Noti Elementary school outside Eugene when the storm hit. The day of the storm we were sent home early from school. My mom knew nothing about the approaching storm and was not home when my brother, a fourth-grader, and I arrived. We waited on the porch until someone dropped her off home from shopping. She was at first mad we were there and thought we had walked home from school but after she called someone she found out the storm was coming. We did not have a car, my dad was in Seattle and the nearest neighbor was more than a mile away so we had to wait out the storm in the house.

The storm hit that night and it is something I will never forget. We lived next to a large orchard and as we watched out the kitchen window the trees were literally uprooted by the winds and pulled out of the ground. The power lines on the highway erupted in sparks and the power of course flickered and went out. The sound of the wind, was incredibly loud and the house creaked and groaned. I have never since experienced winds like that night. It was exciting at age seven but I think as an adult it would have been terrifying.

In the back of the house was a huge oak tree and branches from the tree were hitting the roof and pieces were flying off. It creaked and groaned and there was some concern the tree would fall on the house. My dad was in Seattle at the time and he drove down the next morning, took one look at the tree and we all headed back to Seattle to stay in a hotel while the tree was cut down. This was actually very fortunate because the Seattle Worlds Fair was on for only nine more days and because of the storm we were able to go to the fair with my grandmother.

Scott Haas
January 7, 2007

 

I was watching the KGW 50th Anniversary show last night and learned that the Columbus Day storm was the most powerful non-hurricane wind storm of the 20th centry. I found your article through google and wanted to share my memories with you.

I was 7 years old at the time. I was living in Albany with my mother, step-father, sister and brother. I remember being let out of school early which was an unusual treat for a second grader. As I was walking home from school, my step-father met me along the way to walk me home. This, too, was an unusual treat. I was completely unaware of the impending storm and just thought the windy day was a lot of fun.

We lived in an apartment at the back of a large house that had been converted to 3 or 4 apartments. We sat huddled in the living room with several other children who lived in the building. All of the families had gathered in our apartment. Us kids just played games by candlelight and looked out the window as the storm raged. At some point, the adults became concerned that a large tree in the back yard might fall on the house so we all moved to an apartment in the front of the building. All of us kids had to hold hands in a long train so we wouldn't blow away.

The next day, all of the adults talked about how the storm had created a lot of jobs and many who had been unemployed would able to work for several weeks. For me, it was just a big adventure and I don't remember being scared at all. I still love windy days and will always remember the "Big Blow".

Kathy Jones
Albany, OR
December 22, 2006

 

Graduated Sunset High in June of-62 and was working with the Ferrier shoeing our horses on October 12, 1962. We had heard about the approaching storm just as he got to the farm on Cornell Rd. He said he wanted to get the job done as fast as he could so that he could get back home soon. We worked fast and got the four horses feet shod at about the same time I looked up and watched a VERY large branch off a fir tree moving north, about twenty feet above us, at a high rate of speed. Neither of us had noticed that wind because we were working at the bottom of the property, near the barn and all the wind was above us.

Father was still at work and we didn’t see him for three days. He was at that time working in the Bonneville Bldg on the east side and had to get from there over Skyline Blvd. pass in the west hills. I can only guess as to what he was required to get through but he didn’t get home with the car. The car that remained at home was crushed by a large fir that succumbed to the wind.

Mom kept my brother and I busy cleaning up the mess in the yard and pasture and caring for the rather non chellaunt horses and our one cow. By the time Father got home only the main trunk of the huge tree the flattened our Borgward, honestly a Borgward, was still on the remains. He told us that the Ford had suffered some wounds also but would be serviceable. He also told us how he had “worked” his way home, helping those that didn’t have help and getting fed for his efforts. He said he had been an electrician, an arborist, plumber and firefighter all on his way home, and showed the effects, and smells of it all.

Right now, tonight, I am holed up in the Lopez Island Sheriff’s substation, it’s 0600, it’s still blowing about 50 MPH out of the WSW and there are at least five sail boats aground, right across the road. The downed trees and other debris is at this time immeasurable. The OPALCO Electric crews are just getting out to go to work, and the Public Works guys have started up the saws to begin clearing the roads. I will go out in about an hour to assist with the saw I keep in the trunk of the patrol car.

anonymous
December 15, 2006

 

I was at the train depot in Centralia Washington. My Dad worked for the Union Pacific Railroad and only came home on weekends.

We always picked him up on Friday night, however on Oct 12, 1962 the train didn't show up and we were stranded at the train depot (probably the safest place in town) all night.

I remember being so terrified of the wind. We finally made it home to Rochester Wash the next morning and my Dad finally made it home that afternoon after he hitchicked.

Two of our big trees were knocked down and our barn roof was missing. That was 43 years ago, but still seems like yesterday.

Charlene Pan
October 12, 2006

 

I was being picked up from a nursery school in northeast portland ( lively day nursery). The power had gone out and by the time we had traveled back to the house which was in northeast portland the storm was at it's height.

I remember that my father had parked the car in a driveway between two homes which were close together, to pick up my brother at his friends house just up the street from ours.

He ended up pulling out of the driveway between those two homes because the chimmeys were going to fall and one did !

Scott Lamont
October 9, 2006

 

I was a first grade student at an elementary school in Bothell, Washington, whose name I don't remember.

The school was located on the hill above the high school.

I have vague memories of the storm, but vivid recall of the events just afterwards, as my father, Roger Whitman, 38, was killed in the storm when a tree fell on his vehicle.

He was the only fatality in King County. Among my memories are those of my weeping mother, concerned neighbors and hearing my father's name mentioned on the Huntley-Brinkley Report on our old black and white TV.

My grandparents, who had just returned to their Minneapolis home following a visit to our family and the Century 21 World's Fair, were compelled to return to Washington by train for the funeral, which was closed casket due to the severity of my father's fatal injuries.

My mother, who with my father had leased space to open a business in Kenmore, had to drastically change plans, abandon the business plans, sell our tract home in Bothell, and move our family to a meager trailer on the Pilchuck River in Snohomish.

38 year later she passed away in Tacoma, Washington. Although this storm significantly altered her life, she rarely spoke of it. Late in her life, after suffering a stroke, she shared with me that she felt her duty was to put the past behind and do the best she could with what she had.

I have treasured this thought, and gained a significant appreciation for her toughness and adaptability in the face of circumstances, a trait I saw demonstrated again and again in her life.

My father, who was cremated (against my grandparent's objections as Ukrainian Catholics), is enshrined in a niche at Evergreen-Washelli.

Bill Whitman
September 22, 2006

 

Hi, just wanted to say I was Five years old and we lived in gov. quarters at Fort Lewis. Wow! By the time my Dad got us home from a company function the wind was howling and power was out and I was one spooked little kid.

The next day the Army had set up huge mess tents in all of the housing areas. We could bring our food out for them to cook so it would not spoil.

I remember taking a lot of eggs and bacon out there. They gave me and my little brother huge apples and oranges. It was better than camping.

We had quite a few huge trees down. Our quarters did quite well. We were in the two story brick buildings right off of the main gate. Our big tree that was next to our patio did get blown down but, it didn't damage our quarters.

I didn't have to go to school for three days either!

Love this site. Glad to know there a lot of others that remember the storm.

Darlene Reardon
May 23, 2006