where were you when mt. st. helen's blew up?

where were YOU? was your state affected?

it was 3:00a.m. in black forest colorado, my parents had gotten my brother and i up to get an early start on a trip to NE. st. helens blew the day before or so and when we went outside, there was the strangest smell and grey ash EVERYWHERE. it was very creepy. we had to brush the car off before getting on our way so we could see. i was in 9th grade at the time, but will never forget that unique smell which i have not smelled since that day.

a great friend of mine had just moved to washington just a few months before and had always wanted to talk to her and see what her experience was.

I was home studying for a test in my psychology class. I live just about two hours from Mt. St. Helens, to this day I swear I heard her blow. I do remember watching the mountain fly overhead though, and the dust all over everything. To this day there are still piles of ash alongside I90, if you know where to look. That day was surreal. Midnite at noon.

Oh, I blew the test, along with most everyone else .

what was it like? how intense was it? from the photos i've seen, i can't imagine any cars running, or running very long due to air cleaners getting clogged!

did a lot of people develop lung issues? how deep was the general ash layer? did it permanently discolor your homes? how was your water treatment or water sources fairing?
this occurrence is absolutely amazing to me.





[edit on 21/12/2012 by zooplancton]

In May of 1980 I was working in Los Angeles, so I was quite far from Mt. St. Helens when she had her big blast.
My parents and brother traveled to the area in hopes of seeing it, but missed the main show by a few hours. They did get to see the ash column around noon that day but it was from a distance.
My mom still keeps a jar of ash on a shelf at her home in B.C.


Check out this little time lapse of the north side blowing off.



Here's a before and after of the mountain.



I really wish I could have been there to see this.

I was living on Whidbey Island Washington at the time of its eruption, I was 16 years old and I had a large family and my brothers and I were always wrestleing around in the house. Well when she blew it shook the entire house , Indeed the entire island. My dad figuring it was a couple of us kids messing around yelled from upstairs "What the HELL are you boys doing " and we replied nothing dad we thought it was you. Well a second shock wave sent us to the tv thinking we were being invaded and turned on the news to find out the mountain we had camped on several times in the past had blown its lid. we traveled to the mountain a few weeks later to check it out and my mom in all her wisdom thought to bring a water cooler bottle to fill with ash which she has to this day.
Fond memories .

thanks sak,

how much ash did you get on the island???
did it affect your cars ability to run? -- or was this type of scenario more local to the area directly around st. helens?

did you have pets outside?
thanks for the story.

I was on the East coast but my older brother was living in Yakima and traveling that day around the state of Washington. He saw the ash cloud approaching and described it as looking like the end of the world. A black cloud was spreading across the sky and it looked like black fingers swirling down from the sky above. He kept taking detours I heard to try to get to his destination. I visited him a few months or so later and there was still about a foot of ash in front of his house. We shoveled it like it was so much heavy wet snow.

I experienced the ash myself. When dry it's like a fine powder that blows into everything (the house, air filters, etc. etc.). When the ash is wet its like a very thick oozing mud. When I was hiking on Mt. Rainier, my brother told me we couldn't eat the snow because the ash would make us sick. I was up high enough on Mt. Rainier to see Mt. St. Helens venting some steam and ash the day before its second major eruption. I figure I was up around 10,000 ft, I think I saw a sign that indicated the summit was around 4000 ft away. My brothers and I were the only ones walking the glaciers of Mt. Rainier in tennis shoes and short sleeve shirts up at that level.

The next day we were talking about seeing how close to the summit of Mt. St. Helens we could get. Someone had already made reservations to go visit something in a different part of the state though. Mt. St. Helens had its second major eruption that day but it was nothing compared to the first. Simply a light dusting of ash that cleared up within a day. The first eruption brought days of darkness to the affected area. Airplanes and cars had difficulty with air filters clogging up. I don't know how difficult it was to breathe with all of the ash in the air.

I figure not too many people remember that nowadays unless they were affected somehow.

"I visited him a few months or so later and there was still about a foot of ash in front of his house. We shoveled it like it was so much heavy wet snow."

wow. i keep trying to imagine what it would have been like. ash penetrating every mechanical and biological opening. wonder what happened to all the timber that fell?
thanks for the post.

I was home when it blew. But I arrived shortly after and spent a month working on the recovery teams.

any thing to tell about it?
recovery sounds interesting.