Let's take time-out to remember 40 years ago (Vancouver, Yakima: buying, living in)

[pnwguy2]

Probably lost in all this Corona mess is that Monday will be the 40th anniversary of the Mt. St. Helens eruption. It was also a time for many in the State to consider masks as important. While the westside was mostly unharmed, outside of the actual volcanic area, the eastside was innundated with ash from Yakima to Moses Lake to Ritzville and beyond. It was really a titanic event for those who lived here then. But as in all crisis events, we got over it. As we will with the current one.

https://www.geekwire.com/2020/forty-...ety-parallels/

[desantos]

I was just thinking about that today... Any budding geologists have any idea what happens or happened in the 6 or so hours before it erupted? in regards to seismic activity, animals going crazy, etc etc...

[Diana Holbrook]

I love the volcano. Remember it well... I was a teenager when it blew. I remember my mom chartering a flight for us to go look from above soon after. When all the standing dead forest and blown down toothpick forest was still there. It was amazing.

I wish the visitor center was open! It would ordinarily be a great day to go up! We usually go up at least once a year, even after all this time, it is still neat, to see the devastation, and the change and recovery, over time.

[Jiff]

I was living in Tri Cities when it erupted. Clear skies, then an enormous gray cloud approached. It took awhile until we got a call telling us what was going on, before the ash descended and darkened the day and giving rooster tails to cars. I suppose we would have figured it out or turned on the radio. A few months later there were more eruptions with lesser ash falling in Eastern WA.

A co-worker at Hanford was killed when he was rear-ended on the road to Hanford's N Reactor a couple months after the eruption. If the wind blew in your direction visibility was nil. He slowed down and a vehicle behind did not. We did wear dust maks for a few months.

The following summer we went as far as you could go to see the damage around the mountain. Amazing.

Photo I took of the approaching ash cloud in West Richland:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/679287...-rSsLpq-bgCoec

[Diana Holbrook]

I had a horse then, on the West side, but the eruption caused a terrible shortage of Eastern Washington hay that year, and actually for the couple years to follow. There were lines at the feed store when a truck was coming, and they limited us to a few bales at a time, to prevent hoarders from buying the whole truck. It was really something.

The ash was a fine fascinating substance... like flour when it was dry, like paste when it was wet. When it dried it would blow around when it got wet it would turn into pancake batter/paste and refuse to wash away... it would just sit there. They'd till it in to the fields, but the hay would still be dusty from all the ash blowing around, for years after, I'd wet the hay when feeding, to keep them from breathing it. But it wouldn't wash away.... it would just sit there. You can still see it today in ditches in Eastern WA.

[pnwguy2]

I think one lesson from St. Helens is we can survive tragic circumstances. Washington did and we will from this current crisis. Yes it can be argued that the current situation has more of a national impact, but the resilience of the people will get us through this.

[leastprime]

We were thinning our peach trees of excess set. We had to wear masks. We had to shake the tree to remove the free ash before entering the canopy. Each kept fruit had an ash birth mark that remained even after brushing, at point of sale. We were 70 miles south of Mt St Helens.

[Returning2USA]

pnwguy2,

Yes, I was thinking about this date today.

Interestingly, I usually remember it.

I was driving from Kitsap to the ocean (I assume Ocean Shores area) to dig for razor clams (or Gooeyducks?) with my parents. It was a Saturday or Sunday.

That day we got skunked. We didn't get a single razor clam. Very unusual.

Then that afternoon, St. Helens blew her cork.

Animals and creatures know. Those clams were hunkering down.

[pnwguy2]

One thing that came out of this was an enhanced emergency response system. Though this is five years old now.

https://www.govtech.com/em/training/...St-Helens.html

[IheartWA]

“Vancouver, Vancouver! This is it!”

RIP David Johnston and all who lost their lives on May 18, 1980.