Posted on 05/18/2005 1:37:03 PM PDT by CT
On the 25th anniversary of the Mt. St. Helens eruption, survivors and loved ones, after uncovering duplicity in Carter administration records of the volcano and its potential dangers, are demanding an apology. Carter personally blamed the 57 people that died as being inside the Red Zone. In reality, the volcano's blast exceeded this governement-assigned area.
The facts around this tragedy are classic Jimmy Carter duplicity, and are instructive of the real Carter, best described as a man that always found fault in others. A man of pettiness, self-absorbtion, and significantly-flawed judgement. All of which even today he and his media admirers take great pains to hide.
MOUNT ST. HELENS NATIONAL MONUMENT – The four bodies were found inside the family’s car, their lungs filled with ash.
When rescue workers finally reached them, they also found a cassette tape, recorded by Ron and Barbara Seibold’s children on their way to the volcano.
“They were goofing around – asking whether or not they would see lava coming out of the mountain,” said Jim Thomas, a top state emergency management official in 1980. “One asked if it was dangerous, and both parents cheerfully reassured their kids that they’d be safe.”
But they weren’t.
The four members of the Seibold family – the mother, father and two children, ages 7 and 9, died when Mount St. Helens erupted with the force of a hydrogen bomb.
Of the 57 people who died on the mountain on May 18, 1980, only three are known to have been killed within the “red zone,” the area cordoned off by officials in the weeks leading up to the eruption.
Another three – miners carrying permits – died in the adjacent “blue zone,” an area closed to the public but open to permit-carrying workers.
‘A safe place?’
Like the Seibolds, the majority of the volcano’s victims were caught in the avalanche of boiling mud and ash in sections of the mountain considered safe for camping and recreation.
Most died of suffocation from ash that filled their throats, noses and lungs.
When Donna Parker finally made it to the site of her brother’s death, she found that even the eggs inside his cooler had been hard-boiled by the heat.
Yet the bluff where William Parker, 46, and his wife Jean, 56, were camping that morning was nearly three miles outside both the red and blue zones.
“And this was supposed to be a safe place?” she asked. “The state owes us an apology,” said Parker, 66, who lives in Canby, Ore.
Washington state officials say the blast was unprecedented and that there was no way for them to have foreseen the scale of the disaster, which ripped trees out of the ground 17 miles from the crater and devastated an area spanning 230 square miles.
Within hours, the volcanic plume blocked the sun over much of Eastern Washington. Ash fell like snow as far away as Montana.
On TV the day after the eruption, Gov. Dixy Lee Ray said that most of those who died were people who ignored official warnings and deliberately went into harm’s way.
When President Carter arrived in Portland on his way to visit the disaster site, he made a similar comment: “One of the reasons for the loss of life that has occurred is that tourists and other interested people, curious people, refused to comply with the directives issued by the governor,” he said.
“They slipped around highway barricades and into the dangerous area when it was well-known to be very dangerous.”
Bob Landon, former chief of the Washington State Patrol, said that in the weeks leading up to the eruption, tourists were routinely trying to get by roadblocks erected by the state.
But when the bodies were finally recovered, it became clear that only a handful had died within the off-limits area, he said.
Not the victims’ fault
Twenty-five years later, relatives of the dead still feel the need to stress that their loved ones did not die because of their own recklessness.
“My mother would never ever, ever, ever, ever have killed her own daughter,” said Roxann Edwards, of Scio, Ore., who was 18 when her mother and sister set off for a day trip to the mountain.
Rescue workers eventually found Jolene Edwards, 19, and Arlene Edwards, 37, lying a football field apart in the branches of separate hemlock trees, about four miles outside the red and blue zones.
Across several ridges, newlyweds Christy and John Killian had been fishing that morning.
Christy, 20, of Vader, Lewis County, later was identified through her left hand, which was found still clutching the couple’s dead poodle.
John, 29, was never found. For years, his mother and father continued to look for him.
Former state patrol chief Landon said the restricted areas were drawn up based on the advice of scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey.
Richard Waitt, a geologist at the agency’s Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Wash., said the possibility of a far larger eruption had been discussed. But it stayed among scientists.
“We all have blood on our hands, if you want to look at it that way,” said Waitt, one of a handful of young scientists in 1980 who tried to warn his superiors that the blast area could be far larger than originally thought.
He noted, however, that even had scientists predicted the true scope of the catastrophe, it’s unlikely the state could have restricted access, because much of the blast site was on private property.
The red zone was almost entirely within the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. It ended where the landholdings of timber company Weyerhaeuser Co. began.
That detail became the basis for a lawsuit brought by the families of the victims, who alleged that the restricted areas were based on property lines, not science.
The case against the state was dismissed in 1985, after the court ruled that state officials did not know how destructive the eruption of the volcano was going to be.
Families of some victims sued Weyerhaeuser, settling for a reported $225,000 – an amount that many said was a pittance.
“No one brings their kids to a place they consider unsafe,” said Donna Parker, repeating one of the arguments frequently evoked by the families of the dead.
Hours before they suffocated in their car under a blanket of ash, Ron and Barbara Seibold had been talking into a tape recorder, answering questions posed by the bubbly children: Would they see the volcano erupt?
The father, playing along, said he hoped they would, said emergency worker Jim Thomas, who was present when the tape was first played for Barbara Seibold’s family.
“We were all struck by what we were hearing, the irony of the parents’ reassurances,” he wrote in an essay about the experience. “The mother’s sister began to sob, quietly at first, and then her sobs became a long, low moan of sadness.”
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...Frank Parchman, who recently published a book about Mount St. Helens called "Echoes of Fury." Before the press conference, Parchman coached the victims' families, telling them it might be a good idea to hold up photos of their deceased loved ones as they sat behind him. After the briefing, he signed several copies of his book for readers.
Parchman told reporters Monday that shortly after his book was published, he acquired documents proving state officials knew the mountain was growing unstable and chose to do little about it. Some of the documents, he said, had been sealed by a judge who dismissed a lawsuit brought against the state by the victims' families.
Parchman declined to say how, exactly, he came by the paperwork. But he attested to documents' veracity. "I believe very strongly they are the real deal," he said.
Among the documents is a court deposition from Washington State Patrol Commander Dick Bullock, who said he was "stunned" that state officials kept moving a roadblock on Spirit Lake Highway closer to the mountain before May 18. The barricade had been 30 miles away and was moved to within 11 miles before May 18.
Other documents show that county sheriffs and the U.S. Forest Service asked Governor Ray to dramatically expand the restricted zone the week before the mountain blew. They were concerned that the restricted zones in place at the time excluded private lands to the north and west, where the volcano vented much of its fury on May 18.
The local officials' plan had been placed on Ray's desk for signature, but she left the governor's office for the weekend without signing it. The plan was not put into place until 10 days after the mountain exploded.
Only three of the 57 victims --- Bob Kasewater, Beverly Weatherald and Harry Truman --- were known to be in the restricted areas, and they were there legally.
In fact, the victims of the blast "were not adventurer types. They were not thrill-seekers as they were called," Parchman said.
Then Parchman gestured toward the victims' families and said, "These people here today, these relatives of the victims that surround me, are not here for compensation. They are here to ask for a simple apology. ...These people were deeply wounded. They still carry these wounds."
On Monday, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews of the victims choked back tears as they recounted how their loved ones died: Loggers working in the mountain's shadow with the consent of their bosses. Campers pitching tents in places they thought to be perfectly safe.
Jimmah couldn't handle a bunny rabbit let alone a volcano. If there's one thing Jimmah doesn't owe an apology for it's volcano deaths.
There is no safe zone in nature.
Just an FYI, but the author of this book is getting a lot of local coverage. He claims to have extensive evidence of Carter being advised of the greater dangers around the volcano.
GET OVER IT... I don't like Jimmy either but GET OVER IT.
"24" must be using Carter as the model for their VP, who has assumed the Presidency while the real President is in a coma.
It was a natural phenomenon. Anyone who said with any certainty that the danger was greater or lesser in given areas was lying. I'm sure he had just as many people giving him conflicting information.
The man deserves the blame for a lot of things but this isn't one of them.
I'm not terribly concerned by the failure of adequate warnings, but lying about it and blaming the victims seems to be the hallmark of the democratic party.
I agree, it seems equally pathetic even when the "other" side is the target.
Rescue workers eventually found Jolene Edwards, 19, and Arlene Edwards, 37, lying a football field apart in the branches of separate hemlock trees, about four miles outside the red and blue zones."
I got to this part and busted out laughing.
I hope that doesn't mean that the "victims" families would like to sue me too.
(Oh sure, just wait until *I* get killed by an exploding volcano and let me see how funny I think it is then.)
The blame lies with the Governor of Washington. Although Carter is and was a communist a$$hole to the core, he had bigger fish to fry at the time - like aiding in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, restoring the Ayatollah to power, and crippling the US economy. He was busy.
Volcanoes happen.
Families of some victims sued Weyerhaeuser, settling for a reported $225,000 – an amount that many said was a pittance.
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Are you kidding me!?! How could they possibly be responsible...
Maybe the victims were Weyerhauser employees? That's the only rational basis I can see.
You wonder how all the people complaining about this would feel if the FedGov shut down Yellowstone Park permanently because it is impossible to predict when the next major eruption will occur. Is that really what they want?
No one predicted that the volcano would blow out sideways.
She didn't have to. She let the Volcano do the killing for her!
The insane thing is they were driving toward the disaster. It would be the same thing as those insane tornado chasers suing the weather service for not warning them exactly where the tornado would break. You feel sorry for people whose homes were ripped apart, but if you are looking for a thrill you takes your chances.
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