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Thousands Gather Along Roadside for a Geologic Blowout
Associate Press ^ | October 3, 2004 | David Ammons

Posted on 10/03/2004 3:57:36 PM PDT by NCjim

A reawakening volcano sparked a makeshift festival here Sunday, as thousands of people staged parties at every wide spot in the two-lane road to the mountain.

Geologic spectators set up lawn chairs in the beds of pickup trucks and fired up barbecues from the park entrance to the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center at Milepost 43 - where the road is closed just 8.5 miles from the simmering volcano. Impromptu entrepreneurs hawked hot dogs and coffee.

"There's such amazing energy here, and a connection among the people here. People are exchanging addresses and e-mails and telling their stories and sharing their binoculars," said Roberta Miller, 62, of Electric City.

At the futuristic visitor center, with a view straight into the crater, the wraparound veranda was jammed with people in lawn chairs - most of them with cameras.

"It's beyond amazing," said Steven Uhl, 31, of Everett, who's tried to visit every year since 1982. "I've been a volcano nut since 1980. Seeing the big eruption on the 18th made me a nut."

"Just to be here is almost a religious experience," Uhl said, though he noted as he scanned the throngs: "A lot of these people weren't even interested three weeks ago."

Debbi Pflughoeft, 49, Rogue River, Ore., said she's wanted to study volcanoes "since I was a little girl."

"My parents told me girls don't do things like that, but the bug is still there," said Pflughoeft, who drove up with her husband Wednesday night.

Chris Sawyer, 40, of Dundee, Ore., had a large camera with a big zoom lens set up on a tripod in what he hoped was a good spot.

"I hope to see something," he said. "It'd be neat if it spews something over and out."

Miller arrived Friday and was camping nearby at Seaquest State Park.

"It is just absolutely amazing that in our lifetimes ... we're getting two different episodes," she said. "It's too good to waste. We had to be here."

Nearby, an artist known as "O" from Santa Monica, Calif., was working on a 4-by-5-foot painting of the mountain, using three dozen cans of bargain house paint in various tones, mostly grays, blues and olives.

O, who declined to give his age but appeared to be in his 40s, had completed much of the painting. The top part was blank, waiting for what he called "the money shot."

Officials felt people were "out of harm's way" at Coldwater Ridge, said Peter Frenzen, monument scientist for the U.S. Forest Service, which oversees the mountain and surrounding Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

The agency evacuated the Johnston Ridge Observatory just five miles from the mountain on Saturday due to concern about volcanic signals indicating a possible magma release.

"We feel more comfortable now that we've pulled back to what we consider a safer distance," Frenzen said. "We understand it's exciting and interesting for folks.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: mtsthelens
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1 posted on 10/03/2004 3:57:37 PM PDT by NCjim
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To: NCjim

Harmonic Convergence redux.


2 posted on 10/03/2004 4:00:13 PM PDT by EggsAckley (..........So many vanities.................so little bandwidth............)
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To: EggsAckley
And I thought I had no life...
3 posted on 10/03/2004 4:03:07 PM PDT by WestVirginiaRebel (Global Test? Test THIS.)
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To: NCjim
If it blew right now the winds would take the Ash SE into Oregon
4 posted on 10/03/2004 4:06:38 PM PDT by cmsgop ( Bong Hits, Fraggle Rock Reruns and DU is no way to go through Life.......... I)
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To: WestVirginiaRebel
People love to rubberneck. About a week ago, there was a serious accident on the northbound side of the highway I commute on. The backup went for five miles. However, the backup on the southbound side went for 20 miles! The backup of rubberneckers was four times as long as the backup on the side of the road the accident occurred on.

I remember about 15 years ago, a skyscraper was being demolished in Boston on a Saturday morning. My wife and I got up at 4AM so that we could be in Boston by sunrise to see the demolition. To our surprise, there were many thousands of people there all set up with lawn chairs and coolers. The police had to set up barriers to keep people a safe distance back. My wife and I just shook our heads at all these people who had no life at all.

5 posted on 10/03/2004 4:10:11 PM PDT by SamAdams76 (The NHL is not playing - does anybody notice?)
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To: EggsAckley

Harry Truman –- and his 16 cats -– refused to leave home at the base of Mount St. Helens before the eruption. The 83-year-old operated a lucrative lodge on Spirit Lake. (May 10, 2000)

6 posted on 10/03/2004 4:10:55 PM PDT by Wiggins
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To: NCjim
"We feel more comfortable now that we've pulled back to what we consider a safer distance," [Forester] Frenzen said.

Fine, but I think Mother Nature's gonna make that call as to what constitutes a "safe distance". Good luck, dummy.

I'm gonna save this for posterity.

7 posted on 10/03/2004 4:12:24 PM PDT by randog (What the....?!)
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To: WestVirginiaRebel

Hey, although I'm not overly fond of Northwest "cool", a small blow-off from Mount St. Helens is a larger geophysical event than YOU'll ever experience, even including that moonshine still explosion.


8 posted on 10/03/2004 4:14:21 PM PDT by mdefranc
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To: NCjim

Good grief--I KNOW one of the people interviewed! Hope everyone stays safe.


9 posted on 10/03/2004 4:14:52 PM PDT by milagro
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To: milagro

It's not quite like getting as close as is "safe" to see an atomic bomb go off, but I think I'd rather be as far away as possible.


10 posted on 10/03/2004 4:16:32 PM PDT by Ironclad (O Tempora! O Mores!)
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To: Wiggins

He died, didn't he?


11 posted on 10/03/2004 4:17:36 PM PDT by EggsAckley (..........So many vanities.................so little bandwidth............)
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To: EggsAckley

He did die and I don't think they ever found his remains. He was right on top of the section of the mountain that blew off in the 1980 eruption.


12 posted on 10/03/2004 4:23:44 PM PDT by Wiggins
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To: NCjim

Sounds like we have the potential for a group Darwin Award.


13 posted on 10/03/2004 4:24:23 PM PDT by GreenHornet
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To: EggsAckley

More like the potential for Moronic Convergence.


14 posted on 10/03/2004 4:30:57 PM PDT by Jaded ((Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society. - Mark Twain))
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To: Ironclad

This reminds me of the Vega party in the movie "Contact."


15 posted on 10/03/2004 4:32:36 PM PDT by gortklattu (check out thotline dot com)
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Comment #16 Removed by Moderator

To: NCjim; bevlar; lysie; Neets; Miss Marple
Son #2 called an hour ago: "Guess where I am, Mom!!!" Yep, you guessed it....on this road apparently with the others viewing the erupting volcano...

It's always nice to hear from one's children, right???

17 posted on 10/03/2004 6:25:02 PM PDT by Molly Pitcher (Global test for OUR national security??? H$## NO!)
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To: Molly Pitcher

Well, I'm sure that cheered you right up.


18 posted on 10/03/2004 6:33:48 PM PDT by Miss Marple
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To: Wiggins
Harry Truman –- and his 16 cats -– refused to leave home at the base of Mount St. Helens before the eruption. The 83-year-old operated a lucrative lodge on Spirit Lake.

I'm sorry about the cats.

(I assume that Mr. Truman is no longer with us?)

19 posted on 10/03/2004 6:35:35 PM PDT by asgardshill (Got a lump of coal? Tell Mary Mapes to 'shove it' - in 2 weeks you'll have a diamond.)
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To: Molly Pitcher

Oh gosh Kit! Tell William to get out of there! I can tell you that I remember 5/18/80 just like it was yesterday and trust me, it was not nice. For a year afterwards, the erruptions continued and the ash was dreadful. We used my old panty hose over the air cleaner on our cars - I had to hand wash all the rose bush leaves and the leaves of the other plantings. That ash is literally ground glass and it is a car killer. I don't think this erruption will be anything like 1980 because the top of the mountain blew at that time, however, it is still capable of sending ash and poison gases at incredible speeds - that is how so many died in 1980. That event was Mother Nature at her worst.


20 posted on 10/03/2004 8:38:44 PM PDT by bevlar (There are many intelligent species in the universe. They all own cats)
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