Please please post your memories and photos!
Ping...
Baynative, are you doing WA pings now?
Yeah, and the Darwin Awardee who said that was killed in the eruption. He, of all people, should have known better.
Darn, I have lots of great pics that I've downloaded, but they're all on my computer at home. I'll have to post a few when I get home from work.
I have no personal memories,, but my first cousin once-removed was in a little plane over it when it erupted.
Ah...Yes....My son's 10th Birthday!!!
Ah...Yes....My son's 10th Birthday!!!
The cloud of ash reached Missoula, Montana (~400 miles downwind) by late that afternoon. It turned dark earlier than usual that evening, like a storm was comong. We got about 2 inches of ash in all by the next morning and were locked in our apartment for 4 days before a rain-storm finally turned the fluffy stuff into concrete.
It shut the town down because they said NOT to use your car as the ash was fine particles of volcanic glass which would get through the filters and erode the pistons and rings.
Reposting from another thread:
I was in high school... on a band trip up to Victoria, B.C. for a big parade. After the parade we got back to the bus, and the bus driver was listening to the radio... CBC radio was saying that volcanic bombs the size of volkswagons were falling on Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia. Lava was flowing into Tacoma... pretty much wiping out western Washington.
The band director found a phone where he could call the U.S. and let us know that the reports were slightly exaggerated. :-)
No, really... the size of volkswagons they were. :-)
The collective apoplexy that the local TV news was doing was just too much. They kept harping on the ash... that to breathe even the slightest bit was certain death. Surgical masks sold out everywhere. People were making huge cardboard and duct tape air filtering gizmos for their cars.
But most of western WA barely even got a discernable dusting of ash. Eastern WA was a different story... over there they were knee-deep in the stuff and it was a pretty horrific mess.
The worst part was that you couldn't just wash it away with water. Water just turned it into a sort of paste. Like wet cement.
Mount St. Helens Victims' Kin Sound Off (asking for an apology)
I got some ash from my family that lives in Lake Stevens. As an 8 year old boy living in NoDak I thought I was pretty cool showing that to my buddies.
I dont think I'm making it up but the sky was darker/hazy sometimes in the summer...at least I think I remember that happening.
I was just 8 years old, but I remember the blast waking me up (it was Sunday) in Everett, about 150 miles away.
That first big eruption didn't leave any ash, but some of the later ones did. The pictures from Yakima were scary...pitch black at noon.
Mornin'.
We lived in Spokane at the time.
We went to church that morning, came home, ate lunch and then we all took an afternoon nap.
My mom called and said, "What do you think of the news about the mountain?"
We had not had the TV or radio on so I had no idea what she was talking about.
A while later, the western horizon was turning dark like a major thunderstorm was headed our way. Shortly it became so dark, the streetlights came on.
We went outside and it was really wierd. None of the normal sounds of birds chirping, very little traffic noise - just wierd. Then, the ash began to fall. Lightly at first, then heavy like a heavy snowfall, and it created a barely audible hissing sound.
The ash we received was super-fine density, much like cement. Some folks were out with hoses attempting to wash the ash down stormdrains. So much water was being used, that a couple of pumps on city wells burned up.
A visit to local fire stations provided residents with face masks and we were cautioned to wear them whenever we went outside.
A local talk-radio station, KSPO, became the "unofficial-official" source of up to date news. Officials took calls from the public and one in particular was quite amusing...
"Hello? Is it true that Burlington-Northern Railroad owns the top of Mt. St. Helens?"
"Yes, as I understand it"
"Could you tell me who to call to tell them to come get their mountain out of my back yard?"
I remember that it was the big news on my birthday in 1980, but I wasn't anywhere near the place (still living in the SF Bay Area at the time).
It was as dark as night by noon that day, street light were on - very surreal. We ended up w/3 inches of ash. It was fine like flour, but gritty. It really was a pretty cool experience to live through.
Hi! I remember sunning in my bathing suit in the back yard, green grass, sunny blue skies in Spokane. I got up to get something to drink from the house and saw a huge wall of black clouds in the distance. It looked like the wrath of God and end times coming! LOL It just didn't occur to me that it was Mt. St. Helens...
After I went inside with my daughter it got cloudy and dark. I still laugh at myself for then turning on the TV out of habit (I always watched when making dinner at night.) After all, it was still afternoon! It was then that I heard the mountain had blown.
My daughter and I went outside and little light flakes of gray "snow" began floating down and covered the yard and trees. Everything became a dull, gray color - where did ground end and sky begin?
The next day my neighbors and I were "washing" my tall trees down with a hose. Cars began to break down because of the dust and stores ran out of fresh milk, vetetables, and fruit. What a gigantic MESS! FOR MONTHS!
Sometime afterwards, my dad and daughter and I went camping on one of the opposite areas where were could look over at Mt. St. Helens. There was still ash on the ground where we camped and we were all pretty dirty - but it was fascinating.
When the new museum and viewing room was opened on St. Helens my family and I drove up. I still remember gasping at that "moonscape" when the curtains opened... It was breathtakingly beautiful in a stange way. I also think back on the frightening images like the Tudle River, as well as the colorful character Harry, who ived on the mountain. And God bless the entrepreneurship of Americans who made items from the ash. IMHO ANYTHING to get rid of that awful stuff is GOOD! LOL
An old war buddy of mine saw the eruption at a safe distance...
He didn't say "Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it!"
He said, "Holy ***!"