25 Years Ago Today, She Blew!

Twenty-five years ago today, May 18, 1980, I got up and turned on the
radio. They were saying that Mt. St. Helens had blown its top! I
looked out the window to the north and saw a dramatic scene: the sky
seemed to be divided into two halves, to the left of a dividing line
the sky was blue, to the right of that line the sky was black! I
couldn't see Mt. St. Helens itself from my house because of hills in
between, but I sure could see the volcanic plume!

Previous eruptions had dropped ash in our vicinity, but this time the
wind was directly west to east so no ash came my way. But my father,
who was hundreds of miles away in Montana at the time, had ash fall on
his car.

Octogenarian Harry Truman, the caretaker of Spirit Lake Lodge at the
mountain's base had chosen to remain, tending to his duties to the end.
Like a brave captain choosing to go down with his ship, he had stayed
at his post, and now was buried beneath tons of volcanic ash. They
have never found his body.

I remember seeing Spirit Lake as a child. It was a magical setting.
From the campgrounds you looked across the lake to the snow capped
mountain that was an almost perfect cone shape. There were these big
pieces of pumice stone lying all around the shore. I would pick up
what looked like a big rock, and it was as light as a feather!

The day of the eruption, I say television reports from Yakima
Washington. It looked like a snowstorm from hell! The ash fall looked
like black snowflakes falling in a bizarre blizzard that blocked out
the Sun! All you could see were local lights, as the day had turned
black as midnight!

Yes, twenty-five years ago today, what a day! Seems like only
yesterday.


http://www.freep.com/news/nw/mount-box118e_20050518.htm

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=768403

http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-05-10-voa8.cfm

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/...21057718.shtml


Looks quiet today, despite recent activity:

http://www.oregonlive.com/volcanocam/

Double-A

Hi Double -A It seems only yesterday. A week after she blew a guy came
into Josi's bar in Huntington Beach and was selling Mt. St, Hellen
volcano dust. He made a few bucks. I'm still buying red wood from the
Sherman tree. Lots of ways to make money on the west coast.
Next month I'm thinking of taking Moby on a world tour of middle
schools. I'll start locally. Have to teach him a few more tricks.
Bert

G=EMC^2 Glazier wrote:
Hi Double -A It seems only yesterday. A week after she blew a guy
came
into Josi's bar in Huntington Beach and was selling Mt. St, Hellen
volcano dust. He made a few bucks. I'm still buying red wood from
the
Sherman tree. Lots of ways to make money on the west coast.
Next month I'm thinking of taking Moby on a world tour of middle
schools. I'll start locally. Have to teach him a few more tricks.
Bert

Lots of satellite snaps of the huge, penguin-killing Glazier iceberg

~ re-Register'd


~~~~~~~~~~ http://tinyurl.com/cxvr2 worth a peek!