Where were you when the mountain blew...Mt.St. Helens???

On this day 42 years ago we woke to anywhere from 7 to 10 inches of light grey talcum powder covering everything.
Dead silent, no birds, nothing. No cars, no people, until we walked to the local Safeway to find the shelves were already stripped clean of everything. People running around the store like chickens. And no deliveries to town for the next week, highway closed all directions.

T
 
I was in the Philippines June 1991 for Mount Pinatubo, Subic Bay then Camp Commander in Cebu doing the evac. Pinatubo is estimated to be 8-10 times Mt St Helens,

The eruption ejected about 10 km3 (2.4 cu mi) of material, making it the largest eruption of the 20th century since that of Novarupta in 1912 and some ten times larger than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. To top it off a typhoon struck the island (Luzon), with its center passing about 75 km (47 mi) north of the volcano.

Tom
 
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I was breaking camp at the Sweat Creek campground west of Republic WA.
All the way home it smelled like the battery on my 1978 GL was burning up and out of water.
Got to Spokane Valley about 3:30 and it was getting dark, had to turn on the news to find out what happened.
 
44 years ago.....the black cloud was beginning to cover the sky, west to east. In a couple hours we couldn't see across the street to see the neighbors porch light, the ash was falling so thick.
By mid afternoon the temperature had risen over 20 degrees inside the house and it was pitch black outside and we had no way of knowing if or when it was going to stop.

I was 16 and it was very surreal, parents kept us calm and we went to bed to awake to what looked like a winter wonderland, but with 10 inches of ash, talcum like powder, covering everything.

T
 
I was breaking camp at Sweat Creek campground west of Republic. Heard a big bang or explosion. Stopped several times on the way home, had a smell like my bike battery was cooking. Didn't know about the volcano until we arrived at home about 5:00 pm. Had a foot or better of ash in the front yard the next morning.
 
I was living in Redmond, my brother was in living in Tieton near Yakima and my Mom and Dad lived in Naches, just West of Yakima. We have ash that ranges from pea size to dust size
 
I was a senior in high school in Indiana. In 1985 I rode my Yamaha Venture to CA and then North to St. Helens. Ash piles were still in people's driveways. Camped at St Helens and took a helicopter ride up to the crater. Amazing scene. The pilot was excited because we spotted Elk. They were finally coming back.
 
I was in southern Ontario... I remember seeing some spectacular sunsets for a few weeks. I spent the summer of 1988 giving tourists helicopter flights into the crater out of Cougar and Toutle: it was an incredible experience. It was very weird seeing the occasional volcanic rock floating down the Toutle river. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a few hours on the crater floor itself & I'd be lying if I said the constant rock falls didn't worry me.
 
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