Mt. St Helens Ashfall Advisory

[null and void]

Fog finally clearing of the web cam.

Nothing extraordinary shows.

[Danae]

Nothin happenin. Its just ash from rockfalls. Maybe from some melting Snow and Ice. Earthquakes still happening every 1 to 3 min, meaning the extrusion of Lava continues, but it is a gentle process for a volcano.

[Danae]

So do I. I was in Eugene Oregon and we HEARD it. Twice, the loudest sonic boom like explosions. BAM (pause) BLAM!. It was pretty insane. Of course, Eugene is about 170 miles from the Volcano, so we could not see it, but we sure knew SOMETHING has happened that morning. My husband was not so lucky. He was in Ellensburg Washington, and they watched the boiling cloud of doom, something straight out of "Lord of the Rings" come right for them, then turn day into night. It was BRUTAL he said. They could not get rid of the ash. It took squeegees, not brooms to get rid of the stuff it was so fine, like talcum powder.

[navygal]

I was born and raised in California, I was in 6th grade when it happened

[Sally'sConcerns]

Here's the link which has the last 3 hour archive. Looks like it was foggy earlier, then it cleared a little and is now foggy again.

http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/archive/live-images/index.shtml

[Clinging Bitterly]

I remember that day well. Though I had recently moved from Florence to Eugene, I was back home that weekend for the Rhody Festival. We heard the booms too. Sounded sort of like sonic booms but not quite right. We were away from news sources so didn't know until quite late in the day, but joked at the time about it being "the mountain".

During that time and for several years afterward I made frequent business trips to Chehalis and also had a lot of contact with various entities between here and there involved in the cleanup operations. . The volume of material that came off that mountain was huge, and it really changed the landscape in the Lewis and Toutle drainages.

[dolander2002]

Well, if the ash falls your way, do not sweep it with a broom. It is a bitch to clean it out of the gutters. It is potash. Great for your garden! Use a hose to wash it from any surface that it might scratch. You want to wear a mask if you do sweep it from walks or driveway. Pile it up in your garden then distribute it around your plants. I had piles next to my hydrangeias. These old plants started putting out blooms in every color from white to pink and purple to deep blue. They had always been that light blue before the ashfall.

Did you watch the implosion of Trojan? Wish I had seen it firsthand.

[pollyannaish]

I was on a trip in Northeastern Washington, right in the ash path.

We were headed home and had to turn around and go back. Ended up trapped there for three or four days. (Can't remember now.)

As that Ash cloud rolled in, and the ash started to fall on the bus as it was gassing up...well, let's just say that is something you never forget. Weird, creepy and frightening.

Whew.

[pollyannaish]

Yep. Your husband's recollection sounds very familiar.

Eeriest thing I have ever experienced in my life. We had been away from any tv or radios all weekend, so when it first started rolling in and we didn't know what it was...it was scary.