The 1,500-acre natural area where the Sandy River empties into the Columbia is at high risk of flooding during the winter months.

PORTLAND, Ore. — The ongoing string of atmospheric rivers has set off flood warnings around rivers across northwest Oregon, including in the Sandy River Delta. The area has no permanent residents, but homeless people often camp along the trails, making them highly vulnerable to flooding during severe weather events like the current series of storms.

“This is swamp land, basically. What they call flood land — it floods out here every year, just about,” said Jerry, who is homeless and camps in the delta area.

Speaking to KGW this week while huddled around a makeshift fire under the Interstate 84 overpass, he said the cold, wet and harsh weather is nothing new for him, because he’s been camping along the river for six years — but it’s a hard way to live, and the recent round of rain has been especially challenging.


“As you look right here behind you, they got flooded underneath the bridge all the way up to their chest,” he said, pointing at some tarps and a soaked mattress from a camp. “All the stuff was floating down the river, and the dogs were on top of the bed. It gets pretty bad here.”

The Oregon Department of State Lands has been sending crews out multiple times per week to post notices and remove new camps that pop up, so most campsites in the area don’t stick around long. Several makeshift memorials remain, appearing to honor the lives of those lost in the woods.


A spokesperson for the Department of State Lands told KGW that its teams will assess the flood impacts to the delta once the waters have receded and it is safe to do so. As for those still camping there, the state said they do so at their own risk — though Jerry said most campers don’t have another place to go.

“There’s a bunch of us out here, you can call us family. We all hang out, stick together, try to make it one way or another,” he said. 

The Department of State Lands said anyone looking to report life safety concerns in the Sandy River Delta should contact the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office.

KGW has reached out to the sheriff’s office and to Multnomah County’s homelessness team to ask if they’re doing anything to monitor the flooding impacts to the camps in the delta, and will update this story if we hear back.