Comshaw
VAGITARIAN
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2000
- Posts
- 11,997
That day a volcanic explosion the most destructive in U.S. recorded history took place. Mt. St. Helens in Washington state blew 500' off the top of it's peak in a lateral blast that leveled everything within 8 miles north of the mountain. The landslide that accompanied that blast hit close to super sonic speeds as it moved north hitting and spilling over a ridge 6 miles form the mountain. It filled the canyon of the north fork of the Toutle river, up to 600' in some places. It filled and raised Spirit Lake at the northern foot of the mountain by 200'. All the snow and glaciers on the mountain melted, combined with the loose ash, caused many devastating lahars. The ash cloud reached 80,000 in elevation.
Before the explosion the state banned everyone from entering the area north of the mountain. But after a few weeks Weyerhaeuser, who owned much of the land and timber north of the mountain, conjoled the state into relaxing the the rules. It is very lucky the explosion took place on a weekend. Had it been a week day there would have been over 250 workers in that area. As it was there were 57 that died.
On Spirit Lake at the northern base of the mountain was a small lodge, Mount St. Helens Lodge, owned and operated by Harry S. Truman. When the state put a ban on entering the area Harry refused to leave. He said there was a cave close to his property and he and his dog would hole up there with a keg of beer if the mountain blew. No one knows for sure but it's more then probable that the explosion caught him unaware and he never made it to the cave.
The explosion sent ash northward all the way to Canada. The farther north it went the finer it was. Close to the mountain it was made up of pebble sized ash. At Moses Lake, 160 miles or so north east of the mountain, it was a fine gray power, the consistency of flour. That's where I was two days after the explosion.
I was a member of the Washington National Guard at the time. Every unit in Washington was activated after the mountain exploded. My unit boarded two buses and with two deuce and a half trucks leading the way headed to Moses Lake to help with the clean up. When we got to Ellensberg the wind was blowing (as it always seems to be over there) and the dust filled the air so thick the bus drivers couldn't see the road. They stopped, but we didn't have communications with the two trucks in the lead, so they kept going. We sat in Ellensberg for 6 hours until the wind died down enough for us to continue. Mean while the two trucks were still on the road. I talked to the guys driving them when we arrived at Moses Lake. The lead driver told me the dust got so thick that the assistant driver had to dismount and walk at the left front of the truck to keep him from driving off the pavement. They arrived in Moses Lake less then an hour before we did.
The ash was 4 to 5" thick on everything. We began to shovel off the public buildings and the first day was fairly easy. The ash was pretty light. That night it rained. The next day when we started to shovel we found that the ash had turned into something similar to wet glue and was heavy as hell. We weighed a square foot of it and found it weighed 87 pounds. Around noon we got a call from the hospital that the building was making funny noises, creaks and groans that no one had ever heard before. I and another sergeant were dispatched to take a look. When we climb up to look we were stunned. It was a flat top building with peripheral walls about three feet high. The ash had plugged all the drains and there was almost 2' of standing water on the roof. We immediately told the hospital to start evacuation as we tried to find the drains and get them open. it took us about two hours before we got the water off the roof.
Mean while my crew was working at the high school cleaning the ash off the roof. When i returned I joined them shoveling ash. The roof was large so we were using wheelbarrows to move it to the edge and dump it. Everything was going okay untiil I noticed that each time one of the wheelbarrow handlers would dump a load over the edge they would laugh. When I walked over and looked, there was a football blocking sled sitting next to the building and they had it all most buried with wet, gluey ash. I didn't say much other then to tell them to knock it off. You got to have some kind of entertainment while working, right?
It took us three days to clear the school roofs. On the second day we got a call from the mnyor wanting us to stop work on the school buildings to go do something more important. When we went to look at the "important" job, he wanted us to clean the ash off his clay tennis courts. I'm afraid my CO was more then a bit, how shall I put it, uncivilized in his response. I don't know if he got called on the carpet for that or not, but we all though t it was funny as hell.
We were there for 5 days and cleaned most of the ash off the buildings. Anyway, that was the week of May the 8th. 1980, the day the mountain blew it's top.
https://66.media.tumblr.com/32c75c01bbed057435046e51deed9254/tumblr_nm7xf6kWhB1rijwyno5_r1_400.gif
Comshaw
Before the explosion the state banned everyone from entering the area north of the mountain. But after a few weeks Weyerhaeuser, who owned much of the land and timber north of the mountain, conjoled the state into relaxing the the rules. It is very lucky the explosion took place on a weekend. Had it been a week day there would have been over 250 workers in that area. As it was there were 57 that died.
On Spirit Lake at the northern base of the mountain was a small lodge, Mount St. Helens Lodge, owned and operated by Harry S. Truman. When the state put a ban on entering the area Harry refused to leave. He said there was a cave close to his property and he and his dog would hole up there with a keg of beer if the mountain blew. No one knows for sure but it's more then probable that the explosion caught him unaware and he never made it to the cave.
The explosion sent ash northward all the way to Canada. The farther north it went the finer it was. Close to the mountain it was made up of pebble sized ash. At Moses Lake, 160 miles or so north east of the mountain, it was a fine gray power, the consistency of flour. That's where I was two days after the explosion.
I was a member of the Washington National Guard at the time. Every unit in Washington was activated after the mountain exploded. My unit boarded two buses and with two deuce and a half trucks leading the way headed to Moses Lake to help with the clean up. When we got to Ellensberg the wind was blowing (as it always seems to be over there) and the dust filled the air so thick the bus drivers couldn't see the road. They stopped, but we didn't have communications with the two trucks in the lead, so they kept going. We sat in Ellensberg for 6 hours until the wind died down enough for us to continue. Mean while the two trucks were still on the road. I talked to the guys driving them when we arrived at Moses Lake. The lead driver told me the dust got so thick that the assistant driver had to dismount and walk at the left front of the truck to keep him from driving off the pavement. They arrived in Moses Lake less then an hour before we did.
The ash was 4 to 5" thick on everything. We began to shovel off the public buildings and the first day was fairly easy. The ash was pretty light. That night it rained. The next day when we started to shovel we found that the ash had turned into something similar to wet glue and was heavy as hell. We weighed a square foot of it and found it weighed 87 pounds. Around noon we got a call from the hospital that the building was making funny noises, creaks and groans that no one had ever heard before. I and another sergeant were dispatched to take a look. When we climb up to look we were stunned. It was a flat top building with peripheral walls about three feet high. The ash had plugged all the drains and there was almost 2' of standing water on the roof. We immediately told the hospital to start evacuation as we tried to find the drains and get them open. it took us about two hours before we got the water off the roof.
Mean while my crew was working at the high school cleaning the ash off the roof. When i returned I joined them shoveling ash. The roof was large so we were using wheelbarrows to move it to the edge and dump it. Everything was going okay untiil I noticed that each time one of the wheelbarrow handlers would dump a load over the edge they would laugh. When I walked over and looked, there was a football blocking sled sitting next to the building and they had it all most buried with wet, gluey ash. I didn't say much other then to tell them to knock it off. You got to have some kind of entertainment while working, right?
It took us three days to clear the school roofs. On the second day we got a call from the mnyor wanting us to stop work on the school buildings to go do something more important. When we went to look at the "important" job, he wanted us to clean the ash off his clay tennis courts. I'm afraid my CO was more then a bit, how shall I put it, uncivilized in his response. I don't know if he got called on the carpet for that or not, but we all though t it was funny as hell.
We were there for 5 days and cleaned most of the ash off the buildings. Anyway, that was the week of May the 8th. 1980, the day the mountain blew it's top.
https://66.media.tumblr.com/32c75c01bbed057435046e51deed9254/tumblr_nm7xf6kWhB1rijwyno5_r1_400.gif
Comshaw
