45 years later, they still miss ‘old Klamath’

It all happened so quickly. On Monday night, Dec. 21, 1964, Del Norte County Civil Defense Chief William Parker was first alerted that floods were expected from a strong winter storm already onshore. But floods were not uncommon. There had been floods in 1953 and 1955, and the people of Del Norte County had always recovered, and at the time Parker had no indication that the flooding would be anything out of the ordinary. In Klamath, Mark Mellett watched and listened as huge redwood logs rushing down the river rammed into the Highway 101 bridge, making the whole bridge shake — something Mellett had never seen before. By Tuesday morning, the people of Klamath needed no weather forecasts to tell them a flood was on the way. They could see the water line begin to swallow neighborhood roads and then their own property lines. Mellett could no longer watch the bridge because floodwaters kept him away from it. In haste, the residents of the Klam­ath River valleys began to evacuate. Writing for the Crescent City American newspaper, George Mer­riman described the eerie sight of logging trucks pulling mobile homes to higher ground, dragging TV and electrical cables, telephone wires and sewer hoses behind because there was no time to properly disconnect the lines. By afternoon, the river rose to a record height of 55 feet...read more