St. Helens

Discussion Open Forum
1

Just some news just in, especially for our US folks.
I’ve just heard over the radio that Mount St. Helens could be about to erupt. Scientists around studying the volcano are sure that an eruption is imminent - a timescale of between now and 6 months.
Although they predict that the eruption will not be as bad as the last one in the 80’s, because of the snow and ice on the peak which will melt during a lava flow or eruption, leathal mud flows could devestate large areas of the surrounding land causing fatalities.

Just thought I’d let you know.

(Tried to find a link, but I couldn’t).

2

abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20041003_376.html

3

dangermouse wrote:

I predict it’ll be a lot closer to now than 6 months. I remember before the previous eruption, reading in the papers about it doing exactly what it’s doing now and thinking it would be cool to go up there and check it out. Then suddenly half the mountain was blown away. Pretty dramatic. They say this one probably won’t be so big, but I bet there’ll be some big action within the next 2 or 3 weeks.

4

Thanks for the link, Tempo.

Wow, so it’s imminent.
There are always some wise guys who go up “about to explode” volcanoes to see whats going on.
I wonder how big this one will be. These kind of things are always interesting providing no one gets hurt or killed.
I’m surprised that St.Helens has such a quick turn around time this time.

5

At least they know more this time then they did in 1980…

Was returning from a concert in Seattle on the morning of May 18th, 1980 and had just passed through the town of Vantage, Washington on the way home to Spokane. Suddenly, trucks, mobile homes and every passenger vehicle on the road started blowing by me on 1-90 doing 90+mph. When they noticed my rather sedate speed, the other vehicles honked, rolled down the windows and gestured frantically behind me…What I saw when I turned around was unbelievable. From horizon to horizen, a solid wall of black, with hundreds of lightning bolts flashing down continiously.

I put the pedal down on my 1970 Z-28 and turned on the news. The geologists were saying that the cloud could be toxic, and to get the hell out of it’s way. It’s travelling northeast at 80-90mph and if you are anywhere on 1-90 run for your life…Within 30 seconds of that announcment, I was doing 140mph.

I blew through Moses Lake, Washington at this speed, and the state troopers had red flags on 10 foot poles waving the traffic on through…A very strange sight for a 19year old in a muscle car.

45 minutes and 110 miles later, I pulled into my driveway just in time to see the ash begin to fall. Within an hour, enough of the stuff had fallen to reduce visibility to under 5 feet. We ended up with about 3 inches of ash in Spokane over the next 24 hours, and found out fairly quickly that driving in the stuff was next to impossible. The ash was so fine it would pass straight through any air filter, and a 5 minute drive anywhere required a complete oil change…Emergency vehicles were seizing engines left and right, with zero visibility on the roads. It took months for the dust to settle, and for many years afterwards, flying over Eastern Washington was an experience in grey.

Spokane is about 220 miles or so Northeast of Mt. St. Helens.

The good people in Portland had an ash-free, front row seat to the 1980 eruption due to the prevailing winds…However, they are only 50 miles southwest of the volcano, and a subsequent eruption the size of the 1980 one could bury the city in up to 2 feet of ash if the winds are coming out of the northeast (common this time of year).

Being in the path of a volcanic eruption, even at a distance, just isn’t any fun at all… :astonished:

6

:bravo:
Excellent Story. :slight_smile:

7

didn’t feel a thing Friday… everyone is hoping for a day off…

8

You went from Vantage to Spokane in 45 minutes?!?!?!? That’s cruisin’.

I was only two when that happened, so I don’t remember anything about it. Compared to that one, has anyone been predicting how much damage this one will do?

9

I predict it’ll be a lot closer to now than 6 months.[/quote]
I predict that it’s already bloody well erupted, like two days ago.

Unless they’ve changed their tune since this morning, the USGS thinks it’s just a few weeks or months of minor “throat clearing” to relieve pressure, not a wipe-out-1300-feet-off-the-top kaboom.

I’m waiting for Rainier to blow again. Goodbye Orting, Kent, and maybe parts of Renton! Instant urban renewal!

10

[quote=“Damage”]You went from Vantage to Spokane in 45 minutes?!?!?!? That’s cruisin’.

I was only two when that happened, so I don’t remember anything about it. Compared to that one, has anyone been predicting how much damage this one will do?[/quote]
I’d say more like impossible. Vantage is about exit 137, and Spokane starts at about exit 277. 140 miles in 45 minutes = 187mph? You wish! :stuck_out_tongue:

11

Man, Orting, that is a town you don’t hear mentioned in Taiwan too often. Supposedly my hometown, the bitter high school football rivals of Orting, was built on land suggested by local Native Americans who insisted that it was safer from the weather as well as the volcano, even though Mount Rainer is just 25 miles to the east.

I visited Mount Saint Helens in 89 or 90 and was amazed that the destruction was still around. Traveling the road to the visitor center near the former Spirit Lake, you were in the midsts of tall pines and pull around the ridge to find the windward side gray and desolate.

12

[quote=“MaPoSquid”][quote=“Damage”]You went from Vantage to Spokane in 45 minutes?!?!?!? That’s cruisin’.

I was only two when that happened, so I don’t remember anything about it. Compared to that one, has anyone been predicting how much damage this one will do?[/quote]
I’d say more like impossible. Vantage is about exit 137, and Spokane starts at about exit 277. 140 miles in 45 minutes = 187mph? You wish! :p[/quote]

Guys,

If you’d read the post carefully you’d see that I said “Moses Lake” to Spokane. 113 miles. Vantage was where I first saw the cloud…

Geez

13

My apologies. I read it again. I wasn’t calling you a liar or anything. Was just impressed. I never went passed the mountains much, so I wasn’t too sure where Vantage even was. Was thinking near the Gorge???

Anyway, this isn’t supposed to be anywhere near as big as that one. My family all lives in Fall City, so I was a bit concerned.

14

[quote=“Damage”]My apologies. I read it again. I wasn’t calling you a liar or anything. Was just impressed. I never went passed the mountains much, so I wasn’t too sure where Vantage even was. Was thinking near the Gorge???

Anyway, this isn’t supposed to be anywhere near as big as that one. My family all lives in Fall City, so I was a bit concerned.[/quote]

No worries…

I’d thought I’d get enough raised eyebrows as it was… :wink:

The fact that I made it home without a) running out of gas and b) not blowing my engine still boggles me to this day. But maybe the fact that the car I was driving was designed for IROC competition was probably what got me to my front door. The 350c.i. LT-1 small block V-8 is one of the most bullet proof engines ever made, and at 370 horspower (stock) one of the best performing.

It’s sounding as if this might be more of a burp than a 1980 type eruption, and I for one would rather not have this be a front page disaster. I have family that has since relocated to Portland, and they’ve already paid their eruption dues.

You can still go to any of the little towns along eastern Washington I-90 to this day and see huge man-made mounds covered in grass…Stick you hand into any of them and you’ll go in up to your shoulder…

The hardest part was cleaning it all up…Touch it with water and it turns to cement; leave it and every time you take a step, it’s airborne for half an hour…We ended up watering it down and hauling it off in a pickup…Many, many loads. A few weeks later I was back in California visiting relatives and I saw several stores selling one ounce jars of Mt. St. Helens volcanic ash for 5 dollars a bottle… :loco:

15

incidentally i just finished reading the book Krakatoa, excellent piece about the amazing power of that eruption and the various geological, scientific and historical issues surrounding it. i never realized that the theory of plate tectonics was so recently arrived at. well worth picking up, they had a bunch of copies at the kingstone on sinyi near yongkong street, hidden on the back of the rack of english books near the door.

16

I have a multitude of friends up in the northern OR/WA area who will have a first hand accounts of anything that happens. I’ll be sure to report back here with any I am given.

17

Michael, hats off to you man, not many of us are foolish enough to 'fess up to the fact that we’re from Spokane.
Dammit! Secret’s out…
Graduate, Mead High School, 1993
And yes, I once had a mullet and drove a pickup.
(but it was a Nissan!) :blush:

18

The latest news on Mt. St. Helens seems to suggest that even though there have been a few small-scale “burps” (compared to 1980’s explosion, scientists are predicting small tremors and possibly some lava flow - nothing even close to the scale of what happened in 1980. We could see a small plume of ash and steam from Portland on Friday, though. People here seem far less concerned with the volcano than they do with the presidential campaign :wink: A decent local link is http://www.kgw.com/ for updates.

19

[quote=“BotelTobago”]Michael, hats off to you man, not many of us are foolish enough to 'fess up to the fact that we’re from Spokane.
Dammit! Secret’s out…
Graduate, Mead High School, 1993
And yes, I once had a mullet and drove a pickup.
(but it was a Nissan!) :blush:[/quote]

Were you there for the eruption?

:offtopic:

A dark 5 years of my life for sure…Graduate, U-High 1979. Funny thing is that right up here in Sunny forest there are two other Spokanites as well. Thank god I’m not a native, and moving there from L.A. at 15 had to be one of the most depressing experiences of my life.

If it hadn’t been for Schweitzer basin, Mt. Spokane and Silverhorn, I would have shot myself the first year. Best thing about Spokane is looking out over the valley going west on I-90 as the last of the pine trees disappear. I never truly heave a sigh of relief until I see the California border…

Spokanites are like the Hakkanese of old…Scattered everywhere because nobody wants us, and nobody in their right mind wants to return.

Spokane… :wall:

A former Spokanite married to a Hakkanese woman…Go figure :wink:

20

Funny that you can go to any tourist shop in Washington State and buy jewelry, cups, and other crap made of St. Helens ash. What a great scam. Just load up a dumptruck and you’re set for life.

I lived in Eastern Washington for just one year of my life and that was the year the St. Helens erupted the first time. I was just 7 years old at the time, though. Hopefully prevailing winds won’t blow it north to Seattle this time. I’m not sure I really want to be old enough to remember something like this