Happy St. Helens' Day to my fellow PNWerners

[Vort]

I was in the northeast corner of the state, so we just got a bare dusting of ash. My grandparents in the Tri-Cities got hit much harder. To this day, if you go outside of town into the sagebrush and dig down, you'll hit ash almost immediately.

[MorningStar]

I remember my parents bringing home masks in case the ash made it our way. My dad said he was driving somewhere (maybe Portland area) and his car got dumped on.

[classylady]

My husband remembers it well. Even though he was living in Spokane, he could see the gray sky towards the west, and by late afternoon the ash was falling in Spokane. He says he rode his motorcycle up and down the road, leaving huge dust trails behind him. He worked for the Air National Guard and had the "privilege" of cleaning up ash in the Sprague area among others. To this day, it has left a lasting impression on him.

[prisonchaplain]

Ironically, Seattle got hardly any...everything went East.

[Wingnut]

My parents lived in Anaheim and got ash.

[Iggy]

BTW- the eruption was in 1980. 31 years ago!!!

Portland got hit hard. My Ex=MIL's car, roof of her house & yard had a foot of the ash. Had to have her car repainted even. She gathered up & bagged all the ash from her yard and her neighbors. She used it as fertilizer on her indoor plants. Her African Violets went nuts- they outgrew their pots in a year! My Ex and I had just planted a small Japanese Maple tree in her front yard about a month before Mt St Helens erupted. That ash enabled it to grow 1/2 times as fast.

I brought a trash bag of it to my home on the coast, and used it on my house plants- all 70 of them- They went nuts and took over my entire upstairs, postage stamp, of a living room!

The downside of all that ash - the ivy and nettles in her yard grew by leaps and bounds- thought we would never get rid of them.

Edited May 19, 2011 by Iggy

[Traveler]

I remember the Sunday well. We sat with our young family at the time (Brown’s Point - North East Tacoma - not far from where PC lives now) on the front porch and watch the eruption after church. We got very little ash. Some things still stand out to this day:

1. There was a reporter caught in the eruption on St Helens and video his ordeal. This was later broadcast. He did not have time to turn his vehicle around so he was backing down a dirt mountain road at about 40 miles an hour. From his video you could see the dark cloud from the eruption coming down on him. There were lighting strikes all over in the cloud and a terrific rumbling sound. The cloud would shake trees and knock down the weaker trees. Once the cloud caught up to his car he could not see and crashed. The cloud made everything dark and from then on all that was on his tape was some light and his voice. He did survive but almost suffocated from the ash.

2. After the eruption logging companies wanted to go in and get as much lumber as possible - millions of lumber was knocked down and could be used for paper. The Sierra Club, claiming to be protectors of the environment sued in federal court to stop the loggers. The delay caused the loss of all the lumber - none was recovered from federal lands, only from private lands. Within weeks the land that was lumbered began to recover. The downed trees delayed recovery in other areas. I canceled my Sierra Club membership that year and have not been associated with them since. I believe them to be more political than environmental.

3. There was a group of concerned citizens that sued the government for not letting them get closer to St Helens to watch - prior to the eruption. Several involved in the law suit circumvented the road blocks to get closer and were killed in the eruption. Their surviving families initiated another law suit against the state for being too lenient and not maintaining a more distant perimeter. Everybody is a victim and entitled to something - I guess.

The Traveler