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  • February

    The Oregonian recognized the Corps' efforts to save the downtown Portland area from the flooding.

    Containing the Flood of 1996

    One of the biggest floods the Portland District faced in the late 20th century occurred in February 1996 and caused millions of dollars in damage to the region. The District played a crucial role in combating this flood 's impact through a variety of short-term and long-term activities.

  • January

    Workers place the new Auditorium building cupola within reach of the crane that will lift it into place.

    Dam, that’s a lot of work: Bonneville buildings get face lift, cupolas

    Portland District put new roofs – one of the most vital parts of a building in the rainy northwest – on the Bonneville Project Office and Auditorium buildings, which are included in the list of National Historic Landmarks.

  • December

    Headshot of a man with a short beard. He is wearing glasses, a light-gray suit, baby-blue shirt and dark tie.

    Hydropower to the people: Mathematician brings energy to new position

    In the wet world of hydropower, a former math teacher has just donned a watery mantle to meet the changing demands of one of the oldest sources of energy.
  • Brigadier General Peter Helmlinger, Northwestern Division commander, toured the Portland Veteran's Affairs Medical Center (PVAMC) with Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers team members who are working on designs and plans to retrofit the PVAMC, Sept. 28, 2018. The tour was a way for District staff to discuss the difficulties the team will face during seismic retrofitting.

    Crowded crest in Portland confronts crafty crew of engineers, planners

    The Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus sits on a 450-foot-tall basalt-rock hill south of downtown. Marquam Hill, also known as “Pill Hill” due to the amount of medical facilities clustered on its crest, is also crowded with homes, steep slopes and daily commuters (during non-pandemic times). These steep and rocky slopes garnered ridicule for Dr. Kenneth Mackenzie when he initially proposed to build a medical school on Marquam in 1914. According to Oregon Health and Science University’s historical collections, “The land, unusable to the railroad company, came to be known as ‘Mackenzie’s Folly’ in reference to its location on an inaccessible hilltop.”

  • November

    Left: Anthony Johnson, technical writer-editor (engineering) with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Portland District, during his first deployment to Afghanistan, from 2004 to 2005. Right: Johnson in November 2019 at the district's headquarters in downtown Portland.

    From self-hate to self-love: An Army veteran’s journey of healing

    Whatever else Anthony Johnson could say about their military service, it at least gave them a friend who cared enough to hide Johnson’s pistol away from them at a time when Johnson might have used it to end their own life.
  • Kyle Anderson and some of his teammates from the Pleasant Hill – Goshen Fire Station who worked the Holiday Farm wildfire together.

    In Harm’s Way: Kyle Anderson goes above and beyond

    Kyle Anderson, a Corps' electrician at Lookout Point Dam is also a volunteer firefighter who was called into action when the Holiday Farm Wild Fire threatened his his hometown of Pleasant Hill, Oregon.

  • October

    Erica Medley, a dam safety geologist with Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, makes her way through thick smoke and fallen trees as she surveys damage on site at Blue River Dam Sept. 14. Medley joined a multi-disciplinary team of operations, engineering and dam safety personnel for a detailed inspection of the project just days after the Holiday Farm Fire burned through the area, impacting Blue River and nearby Cougar Dam.

    Historic wildfires test Corps’ Willamette Valley projects

    The wildfires that closed in on the Corps’ 13-dam system in the Willamette Valley caused minor damage at four dam sites.
  • Jim Day puts out a structural fire during a training exercise as part of his volunteer fire fighting duties with High Prairie Fire and Rescue.

    Just Another Day in Paradise

    Meet Jim Day. Based on his career history we think he may have been a fish in a previous life.

  • September

    A look inside the the cracks and damage to the concrete sill exposed and broken rebar inside the navigation lock's concrete.

    The Anatomy of an Outage: A Look Back at Bonneville Navigation Lock's Sill Failure

    On Sept. 5, 2019, a long unknown and undetected flaw became an impending failure at Bonneville navigation lock. More than 70 feet underwater, sections of rebar, threaded through 40,000 pounds of concrete, had stretched and bent until the strain snapped them. The now deformed steel bars were no match for the force of water that came every time the lock filled with water to pass vessels through the lock.
  • Wendell “Buddy” Barnes (far right), national president of the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME), presents Bud Ossey (center) with a placard recognizing his 73 years of membership with SAME during a Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers historical celebration at the district’s headquarters in downtown Portland in November 2019. Also pictured is Terry Hosaka, the SAME Portland Post president.

    The legacy of Bud Ossey: Centenarian, former Portland District engineer helped electrify the Northwest

    Bud Ossey is probably one of the only people alive today who was there on the cool morning of Sept. 28, 1937, when President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated a brand spanking new Bonneville Dam to the American public.At least, he’s probably one of the only people who remembers it clearly.A 17-year-old