35 years later, residents remember Mount St. Helens eruption [May 18, 1980]

WHIO-TV, KIRO-TV ^ | 5/18/15

[SoFloFreeper]

Thirty-five years have passed since Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington, killing 57 people and raining ash throughout the state.

Lisa Rainey shared a photo of jarred ash with Seattle's KIRO-TV, writing: "Ashes and a newspaper from Mount St. Helen's blast from 1980 ... my grandma and grandpa scooped up ashes in their yard from the blast.”

When the photo was shared on Facebook, many viewers began to share their memories of that day – May 18, 1980.

[shotgun]

I lived between Benton City and Kennewick at that time. My folks were in town and my Mom went out to smoke on my back porch and came running back into the house. I remember thinking the ash cloud looked like a bunch of upside down sand dunes.

Then I had softball practice later that morning in Kennewick. We couldn’t figure out what all the fuss was about as we got virtually nothing in ash fall.

[IYAS9YAS]

Looks like the ingredients off of one : )

Well, it could be. Who knows. It was a souvenir a friend got us when he had to travel from Idaho to Seattle shortly after it blew - there was still enough ash around to cause problems.

I ain't ingesting it, though.

Heck, it could be Aunt Edna, for all I know.

[RJS1950]

Three days after the sky at Minot AFB ND was grey and looked overcast/foggy except the fog was ash. Left a fine layer on the cars and ground.

[austinaero]

That was 35 years ago? GEzz,,I am OLD! My little sister lived in Joseph Oregon then (before it became a resort town),,and they had ash all the way down there!

[austinaero]

If I remember correctly,, Helen had been spewing gasses and dust and smoke for weeks before she completely blew up. It wasn’t an ‘out of the blue’ event by any means. It was RARE but not a surprise.

[al baby]

And the state of Florida Falls to George W Bush

[rockrr]

That’s right, it took about six or seven weeks from the first burp to the last of the flow.

Here’s a link to an A&E show and the eruption that I thought pretty good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fArB5Jz2wos

[razor clam]

262.3 miles. Would that be near Forks?

[razor clam]

Newbie here. I'm guessing that's near Forks, my old home town. Would I be correct?

[Vendome]

It hit as far down as Big Sur, is my recollection.

Here is one story about it:
https://romickinoakley.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/what-would-happen-if/

If you search for terms on Google you will find several people who remember the dust...

[Gator113]

You’re good. That is exactly where I was living at the time.

[6323cd]

Terrible quality video, but this is very informative...

Nova: Anatomy of a Volcano

[Jmouse007]

I remember when it happened because my wife and I were there. Living in Portland, Oregon at the time while finishing my masters degree at Western Seminary and my nephew happened to be visiting us from Massachusetts. The day Mt. Saint Helens erupted we not only heard the explosion, we could see the aftermath of the ongoing erruption; a MASSIVE mushroom shaped ash cloud, that rose thousands of feet in the air. Eventually the ash from the eruption reached Portland and we were inundated with volcanic ash that fell like dirty, heavy grey snow which covered everything and blanketed the entire region. Fortunately Portland was a good distance away and God was merciful in allowing the wind direction to shift so that even though the ash fall was very bad, it could have been a whole lot worse.

All in all it was a "once-in-a-lifetime experience" and provided us with first hand knowledge as to the sheer, abject terror and sense of hopelessness and imminent doom the people of Pompeii must have felt.

Tragically many people died needlessly because they either refused to leave the mountain and surrounding area, or didn't take the warnings seriously. When the eruption took place; the entire top, and one side of the mountain instantaneously dissappeared, consumed in the conflagration and pyroclastic flow. Those not instantaneously killed by the explosion found it utterly impossible to outrun the pyroclastic flow; super heated air and debris, thousands of degrees hot rushing down the mountain side traveling in excess of 200 miles an hour. Most of the people near the mountain who survived these two calamities ended up suffocating and buried under feet of ash.

Campers, many miles away/downstream, who had been camping by rivers and streams which were fed by the mountain's snow pack melt died as a massive tidle wave flood of steaming hot, instantaneously melted snow; Muddy, ash filled water carrying hundreds upon hundreds of whole tree trunks/logs, denuted of all their branches by the force of the blast, cascaded pel mell down these rivers and streams overflowing their riverbanks and utterly destroying everything in their path.

The initial and ongoing eruption, along with the resulting months of ash "safety protocols" and clean up during and over the many weeks after the event are indelibly etched in our families mind. Like I said; it was a "once in a lifetime experience", and believe me when I say once was enough!