I was at my mother's house...introducing her and my fiance that weekend. We watched it on the news. It just didn't seem real.
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Where were you when the mountain blew...Mt.St. Helens???
- Thread starter ToddC
- Start date
I was 12 and on the Snake River at the time with family. We heard the sonic boom come through the canyon and didn't think much of it, Once we heard what had happened we started heading for Spokane. Made it a far as Colfax when the WSP closed the roads. We ended up in the HS gymnasium for three days.
I was looking forward to graduating high school in Red Wing, MN.
OP
OP
Another ash report.
It's now about 5 months after the ash flew and the mountain has blown a couple more times but very little ash came all the way to Moses Lake. The streets are kinda cleaned up, there is still ash in the gutters and every time the wind blows it kicks up. Keeping the house clean has become quite the chore. "Quick the wind just kicked up, close all the window and doors"! Still not driving all the cars, just mom's old station wagon. That old Ford wagon was sold for $400 about 9 months later....
School is starting in a couple weeks. They have cleaned up the school grounds but you can still feel the ash on everything. Books, desk tops, all feel like gritty 600 count sandpaper.
All the vacant lots still have ash on them. It is now illegal to ride dirt bikes within the city limits...too much dust.
They have been dumping fresh gravel on the sides of I-90 to cover up all the ash that wasn't scraped away. It takes them months to complete the task. To this day you can still pull to side of I90 and dig down through that gravel and find a layer of ash.
The biggest issue at this time is the wind and dust. Around Yakima Washington they didn't have the dust problem because the ash was more like sand being closer to the eruption point. Spokane didn't get enough ash to be as bad as Moses Lake was.
In September right after school started I got my first car....1972 Pontiac Ventura. Think Chevy Nova, same body. And yes, we made sure the owner didn't drive it in the ash
. $1000 car that I drove for 9 years and sold for $900......not bad. Put 90,000 on her while I had her.
ToddC
It's now about 5 months after the ash flew and the mountain has blown a couple more times but very little ash came all the way to Moses Lake. The streets are kinda cleaned up, there is still ash in the gutters and every time the wind blows it kicks up. Keeping the house clean has become quite the chore. "Quick the wind just kicked up, close all the window and doors"! Still not driving all the cars, just mom's old station wagon. That old Ford wagon was sold for $400 about 9 months later....
School is starting in a couple weeks. They have cleaned up the school grounds but you can still feel the ash on everything. Books, desk tops, all feel like gritty 600 count sandpaper.
All the vacant lots still have ash on them. It is now illegal to ride dirt bikes within the city limits...too much dust.
They have been dumping fresh gravel on the sides of I-90 to cover up all the ash that wasn't scraped away. It takes them months to complete the task. To this day you can still pull to side of I90 and dig down through that gravel and find a layer of ash.
The biggest issue at this time is the wind and dust. Around Yakima Washington they didn't have the dust problem because the ash was more like sand being closer to the eruption point. Spokane didn't get enough ash to be as bad as Moses Lake was.
In September right after school started I got my first car....1972 Pontiac Ventura. Think Chevy Nova, same body. And yes, we made sure the owner didn't drive it in the ash
. $1000 car that I drove for 9 years and sold for $900......not bad. Put 90,000 on her while I had her.ToddC
OP
OP
This for you non locals........the news this morning reported that there has been over 400 small earthquakes in and around Mt. St.Helens since March 14th of this year. Experts say not to worry, the mountain is just rebuilding it's magma under the mountain. They do not expect any eruptions soon............
I'm filled with confidence..... 
ToddC
I'm filled with confidence.....
ToddC
This for you non locals........the news this morning reported that there has been over 400 small earthquakes in and around Mt. St.Helens since March 14th of this year. Experts say not to worry, the mountain is just rebuilding it's magma under the mountain. They do not expect any eruptions soon............
I'm filled with confidence.....
ToddC
they called the last one pretty well, hopefully they didn't use up all their luck with that one.
How small were they? In certain times Mammoth Lakes can get hundreds of small quakes in a few days.
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OP
OP
They were small.....but it still makes my sphincter pucker........
. JKAt least for the next few weeks I am North of normal downwind ! 7 Bays is kinda down wind depending on how the wind blows.
T
Glad I don't live in the direct path.
They were small.....but it still makes my sphincter pucker........
"Scientists said the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network detected more than 130 earthquakes, between 1.2 and 4 miles deep, in the region since March 13. Researchers said the majority of the quakes have registered as a magnitude 0.5 or less and some are too small to detect."
how do you know there was an earthquake, if its too small to detect?
Mammoth Lakes, Sept 2014
"More than 600 small earthquakes have rattled the Mammoth Lakes region in less than 36 hours as ripple effects continued across one of the most seismically active volcanic regions in California, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The swarm of quakes — ranging from magnitude 1.0 to 3.8 — began just before 5 a.m. Thursday, according to the USGS."
Seems like much ado about nothing, but then I didn't live through what you went through in 1980.
I was having coffee at the local Starbucks with friends this morning when we felt a tremor. Everything "shook, rattled and rolled;" Lasted about 2-3 seconds. We can see Mt. St. Helens from the window in the coffee shop.
Todd, I've saved your posts as a .doc. Very interesting first hand account. Thanks.
OP
OP
Thanks DearR,
Cool, glad you have enjoyed the story. Somehow, every May, I just can't forget those first few weeks afterwards. I will post one more time on the 18th.
ToddC
OP
OP
Now that is really cool ! I hope that you don't teach grammar.....
. What grade do you teach??ToddC
OP
OP
Free-climbing in Hedley, BC. On the rock face when the skies went dark on blue sky day.
Freaky.
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First cousin in Dillon , Montana sent me a film cannister of ash that fell on them.
OP
OP
Happy 36th anniversary of Mt. ST.Helen's eruption!! At 8:32am Pacific time.
To continue the saga. It has now been a year since the world went black at noon. We started driving Mom's 1971 Ford station wagon about two months after the ash flew. Kept Dad's 1966 Chevy pickup inside the shop along with all the other rigs for another month. The ash has proven to kill a car in a short period of time. Any moving parts become abraided from the gritty ash, door hinges, window cranks, any and all spinning parts on a motor. We used that wagon for everything! Haul materials for my father's machine shop business and all our personal transportation. By September the old Ford wagon was burning oil pretty good and all the doors and window were tough to use. Sold it for 400 dollars to some poor soul...
We started to travel a bit to other local towns for swim meets. I swam as a kid on the local summer league team. What we found was that Moses Lake was one of the hardest hit areas as far as ash fallout goes. The mountain it's self had rumbled and spewed ash about 5 more times since the big one. Every time it goes off...EVERYONE gets real nervous..... Is it coming our way???????
Three of our weekend long swim meets awarded the winning swimmers with medals made from ash !! Think a clay looking medal with a imprinted image stamped in the face with the winners info on a sticker on the back. I would have shown you a bunch of them...but they are packed away for our up coming move. (Ya I was a pretty good swimmer)
Schools starts as normal in September. Most the streets and lots have been cleared, the empty fields and lots all still have loose ash on them. Every time the wind blows and there is no rain...it feels and looks like pictures you would see from the "Dust bowl" days. It is an all out drill every time the wind blows...."close the windows! Did someone roll up all the window in the cars?? Where's the dog?"
By the following May 18 the ash is almost gone except when it blows or if you go looking for it. Under bushes, in the tracks of all the house windows, in your rain gutters, along the side of all the secondary roads. It has become part of life at this point. You get used to your hair feeling gritty if you venture out in the wind. By the way..if you are unfamiliar with central Washington.. Moses Lake was a desert area before Grand Coulee was built and irrigation made the area a farmer's paradise. So the wind does blow frequently.. I can remember traveling with my father in the Chevy pickup and seeing a dust cloud blowing across the road so thick you can't see through it...as we approached my father would turn off the engine and coast through the dust cloud to the other side hoping to keep some of the ash out of the air cleaner.
That's about all I got folks. Thanks for reading my story. Hope we never see this again!
Keep the rubber side down and the ash out of your filter!
ToddC
To continue the saga. It has now been a year since the world went black at noon. We started driving Mom's 1971 Ford station wagon about two months after the ash flew. Kept Dad's 1966 Chevy pickup inside the shop along with all the other rigs for another month. The ash has proven to kill a car in a short period of time. Any moving parts become abraided from the gritty ash, door hinges, window cranks, any and all spinning parts on a motor. We used that wagon for everything! Haul materials for my father's machine shop business and all our personal transportation. By September the old Ford wagon was burning oil pretty good and all the doors and window were tough to use. Sold it for 400 dollars to some poor soul...
We started to travel a bit to other local towns for swim meets. I swam as a kid on the local summer league team. What we found was that Moses Lake was one of the hardest hit areas as far as ash fallout goes. The mountain it's self had rumbled and spewed ash about 5 more times since the big one. Every time it goes off...EVERYONE gets real nervous..... Is it coming our way???????
Three of our weekend long swim meets awarded the winning swimmers with medals made from ash !! Think a clay looking medal with a imprinted image stamped in the face with the winners info on a sticker on the back. I would have shown you a bunch of them...but they are packed away for our up coming move. (Ya I was a pretty good swimmer)
Schools starts as normal in September. Most the streets and lots have been cleared, the empty fields and lots all still have loose ash on them. Every time the wind blows and there is no rain...it feels and looks like pictures you would see from the "Dust bowl" days. It is an all out drill every time the wind blows...."close the windows! Did someone roll up all the window in the cars?? Where's the dog?"
By the following May 18 the ash is almost gone except when it blows or if you go looking for it. Under bushes, in the tracks of all the house windows, in your rain gutters, along the side of all the secondary roads. It has become part of life at this point. You get used to your hair feeling gritty if you venture out in the wind. By the way..if you are unfamiliar with central Washington.. Moses Lake was a desert area before Grand Coulee was built and irrigation made the area a farmer's paradise. So the wind does blow frequently.
. I can remember traveling with my father in the Chevy pickup and seeing a dust cloud blowing across the road so thick you can't see through it...as we approached my father would turn off the engine and coast through the dust cloud to the other side hoping to keep some of the ash out of the air cleaner.That's about all I got folks. Thanks for reading my story. Hope we never see this again!
Keep the rubber side down and the ash out of your filter!
ToddC
STripper
Brian
Here's one of several photos posted on a local news web site:
I was fortunate to be living ~100 miles north when she blew. I can only imagine what it was like to be downwind.
I was fortunate to be living ~100 miles north when she blew. I can only imagine what it was like to be downwind.
OP
OP
Here's one of several photos posted on a local news web site:
I was fortunate to be living ~100 miles north when she blew. I can only imagine what it was like to be downwind.
That link is a great ! Thanks Brian.
T
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Well, I was looking forward to touring the PNW and further afield in 2017. You guys and gals will let me know if I should abandon those plans and stick to the South.
BTW Todd, nice write-up, very sobering especially when I clicked on STripper's link and read that 57 people died.
May 1980? No idea what I was doing. In those days, it would take news from the US two or three days to reach us in Oz, I remember it on the TV though.
BTW Todd, nice write-up, very sobering especially when I clicked on STripper's link and read that 57 people died.
May 1980? No idea what I was doing. In those days, it would take news from the US two or three days to reach us in Oz, I remember it on the TV though.