35 years ago today (1 Viewer)

[Jules Winnfield]

Any of our FBG brethren live out there when Mount Saint Helens erupted and have any stories?

Sorry if somebody started a thread on this.

 

[RedmondLonghorn]

I was 10 years old and watching TV on a Sunday morning when it exploded.

My mom and I heard a muffled noise and the floor to ceiling windows in the front of the house were shaking. We thought maybe a large bird had hit the window (happened periodically). A short while later we figured out it was the eruption. My parents' house is ~150 miles from the mountain.

We had almost no ash at our house from the big eruption or any of the previous ones, but I remember seeing live footage from Yakima where it looked like a midnight snowstorm at noon from all of the ash falling. I can't recall if that was on May 18th or May 19th though.

In college I had friends who were from SW Washington who were much more up close and personal with the eruption and the aftermath. A huge amount of mud, trees and debris came hurtling down the Tootle River following the eruption. I was like a mud slide but on a larger scale and over a far greater distance. I want to say the wall of debris traveled at something like 80-100 miles per hour, but that may be my memory exaggerating. I seem to recall that this killed far more people than the explosion itself.

 

[Ditkaless Wonders]

I remember some ash fall in Wisconsin, not a lot, and some spectacular sunsets.

 

[Godsbrother]

I was in college at the time and my roommates uncle lived out there. He sent him a couple of little glass containers of the ash and for some unknown reason I've kept it all these years.

 

[Despyzer]

I lived in the Bitterroot Valley in the Rockies of Western Montana. About a day-and-a-half after the eruption, a large dark cloud descended on us, bringing about a half-inch of ash fallout. School was cancelled and travels advisories were posted. Few people emerged from their homes the next couple of days without filter masks. It took quite a few rainstorms for puddles to stop showing traces of the ash.

My wife lived right across the Puget Sound when it erupted. She says they experienced only trace amounts of ash.

 

[Limp Ditka]

Needs more Ian Curtis

 

[Phil Elliott]

Harry Truman (and his 16 cats) stayed at his home/resort and wouldn't evacuate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGwa3N43GB4

 

[TheAristocrat]

 

[Scoresman]

I #### my pants that day.

Literally, because I was 2 years old.

 

[JohnW1970]

I live in SW Washington, was 9 at the time, remember a lot of the different eruptions and going up into the blast zone when they first opened it up. We still go up once or twice a year to check things out. It is a nice drive, usually see some elk and or deer and there is some good fishing in Coldwater Lake that was formed by the eruption.

 

[BustedKnuckles]

So 35 years ago today i had my first drivers test on the road with the DMV examiner....all i remember is while giving me the test he made me stop at his moms house so he could take a ####...i waited outside illegally parked for over 20 minutes.....best life lesson i ever had...always expect the unexpected and rules are made to be broken..

​i dont remember if the volcano was on the same day or not

 

[Dr Oadi]

Harry Truman (and his 16 cats) stayed at his home/resort and wouldn't evacuate:

If only he lived in today's America. He would have been forcibly removed and alive and well at the ripe ol age of 121.

 

[Don't Noonan]

I grew up in Eugene, OR, and I was 6 years old at the time. I remember ash covered the ground everwhere maybe 1/2 inch thick. I will never forget what that looked like.

 

[Mr. Retukes]

I was in Portland, far enough away that I didn't hear the eruption. But there was a news bulletin on TV so we all ran outside to look. The sky was dark but we were too far away (and too low) to see anything. So the whole family piled into the car and drove to the top of the nearest hill. From there we got an absolutely perfect view of the mountain and the giant ash plume. It seriously looked like a mushroom cloud. You could see thousands of little lightning bolts going back and forth in the sky. It was right out of a movie. We watched it for a while and then went back home to see the coverage on TV. The footage from eastern Washington was insane -- it's the middle of the day but everything was pitch black and the ash was raining down like snow.

The air was thick with ash for the next couple of days, and I remember my mom going to the store to get surgical masks that we had to wear if we went outside. About a week later we visited my grandparents at their apartment complex, and there was a pile of ash in their parking lot that was as big as a large truck. I remember that we couldn't go swimming because all the ash had clogged up the pool filter.

The next year we all drove up to the mountain to see the devastation up close. This was way before the area was made "tourist friendly", so we were mostly driving on one-lane logging roads, some of which were partially washed out from the pyroclastic flow. We drove right past cars and logging trucks that had been caught in the eruption, including this car, which hadn't yet been fenced off.

 

[grateful zed]

I lived in the Bitterroot Valley in the Rockies of Western Montana. About a day-and-a-half after the eruption, a large dark cloud descended on us, bringing about a half-inch of ash fallout. School was cancelled and travels advisories were posted. Few people emerged from their homes the next couple of days without filter masks. It took quite a few rainstorms for puddles to stop showing traces of the ash.

My wife lived right across the Puget Sound when it erupted. She says they experienced only trace amounts of ash.

live in missoula i remember it well.

almost missed this thread because of vague title.

 

[ffldrew]

woke up in Denver and thought it had snowed - car was covered in ash