PORTLAND, Ore. — A landslide has blocked part of Southwest US Veterans Hospital Road, the Portland Bureau of Transportation announced Wednesday morning, blocking one of the routes into the Oregon Health and Science University campus. The road is closed from Southwest Gibbs Street to Southwest Gaines Street.
PBOT tweeted that crews are working to clear more than 30 cubic yards of debris from the road, and the process could take hours at a minimum. Drivers are urged to use alternate routes. Photos from PBOT show a large mass of earth across both lanes of the road, topped with thick vegetation and multiple trees.
Other routes into the OHSU campus such as Gibbs Street, Southwest Campus Drive and Southwest Sam Jackson Park Road are still open.
The landslide comes after a morning of torrential rain in northwest Oregon and southwest Washington caused by the latest in a series of atmospheric rivers that have soaked the region in recent days. Monitoring stations at Portland International Airport recorded 0.82 inches of rain just between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. on Wednesday, according to KGW meteorologist Chris McGinness.
The downpours have caused multiple problems around the region this week, including school and highway closures on the Oregon coast, another landslide in southwest Washington that disrupted Amtrak service between Portland and Seattle and flooding along the Grays River that led to a dramatic Coast Guard rescue of five people on Tuesday.
A homeless man is believed to have drowned after being swept away in Johnson Creek on Monday. He was reportedly camping under an overpass in Southeast Portland just feet from the rising water. Friends tried to save him but were unable to reach him, and Multnomah County crews recovered his body the next day.
