Saw this on my newsfeed today. While I certainly remember the event (who couldn’t forget how far that ash cloud traveled?), I never thought too much about it until a few years ago, someone suggested I visit it if I ever had the chance. So I did, and was absolutely enamored. Such a fascinating story. And last summer, I went back again, this time with H. He, too, found it quite remarkable. And I would go back again for another visit, except there’s TOO many other places I haven’t been to at all that I want to visit… but maybe some day. If you’ve not had a chance to go to their visitor’s center, it is one of the best visitor’s centers I’ve ever been to, and that says a lot, because I’d typically prefer to bypass visitor’s centers (but don’t always).
I’m sure there are plenty of people here on CC who were much more seriously impacted than I was, living in Texas at the time. Any stories you’re willing to share?
We were there in 1987 and it was amazing–the destructive strength of nature on display. I had read a news report a couple of years ago to the effect that other visitor centers had closed due to lack of visitors. The main one just off Interstate 5 was still open. The increase of visitors just wasn’t was projected, Americans sort of forgot about Mt St Helens apparently. Maybe those who live in the Pacific Northwest can fill in the story.
We were camping on Camano Island, as we headed out too late to get to the campground on Whidbey.
We knew it was going to blow eventually, so when we heard lots of Navy planes,( a Naval air station, is on Whidbey), we guess that it had.
I think we kept camping, as there wasn’t anything else to do.
Lots of ash for quite a while.
I actually have not ever been there, but older daughter went twice with her class on overnights ( H got to go, I stayed home with the baby)
The " baby" , I am pretty sure has gone with friends.
My most vivid memory, was that of my parents photos of Spirit Lake, when they had gone there on their honeymoon, and of Harry Truman, the owner of the lodge there, who refused to leave. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Randall_Truman
I guess what we went to was the Johnston Ridge Observatory. I forgot that there’s another ‘visitor’s center’ closer to I-5. And both times I’ve been there (first time was in late September 2007), the observatory was a very busy place.
Coldwater is the center that closed and it was due to federal budget cuts. Johnston Ridge is open and a good base for a short (or long hike) but we thought the Forest Learning Center was better done.
No significant story here. Just that particular summer, I was on a 6 week cross country trip and I recall stopping by the side of the road, and scooping up and saving ash, which was covering everything like a snowfall.
An amazing event, no doubt about it. A flight I took a short time later few by the crater. Amazing. Some relatives still have little bottles of ash as souvenirs. As nor’westerners know, the Cascade Range has been smoking for ages. Mount Rainier will blow sooner or later. The valley and the small town of Eatonton have had evacuation protocols for years, but everybody realizes that there’s no way to get everyone out of the immediate path of a Mount Rainer eruption in time.
Did it perhaps impact those in Portland more than Seattle?
I think with Rainier, there’s a higher population center closer to the volcano, whereas Mt. St. Helens seems a little more rural. But I don’t know. Those were just my perceptions as we drove around Oregon and Washington… but maybe Mt. St. Helens had more of a population back then, and it was just all destroyed, so it seems more remote now.
I was driving up from AZ for my summer job in Alaska, and had a ride from the Phoenix ride line with a lovely older woman (who was younger than me now) We were very hesitant setting out, as I 5 was closed for a few days, and the ash was ruining car engines. By the time we got there, the ash was cleared, and the cloud cover was too low to see that or any other mountains, so a non event.
My cousin’s partner, a Portland native told me about being very much impacted by the eruption, but can’t remember the details.
I was a geology major in California and everyone was very VERY excited about the eruption. The ash traveled with the major air currents, mostly to the east. Spokane was hit hard. Once the mountain was opened up again, I climbed up the back side to the summit of the crater on two different trips. Took DH on a trip early in our relationship. He wasn’t all that excited by the crater and the steaming dome, but as a biologist he was thrilled to see a rosy finch at the summit where there was nothing but ash and rock.
That’s right. Portland got ash later. During the initial eruption, parts of eastern and central Washington were fairly dark during the day because of the ash; Yakima and or Spokane I think. The ash clouds never made it to the Puget Sound region. But if Mount Rainier blows, there could be ash clouds headed west and north towards Seattle and Tacoma.
As geologists who had just left the state, DH and I were frustrated to not be there. We made do with family members’ news. Our former campus was pretty inundated with ash. Classes were cancelled. I’m sure everyone’s memories would have been more vivid with cell immediate photos
Saying a prayer tonight for those souls lost
When Rainer goes, don’t worry about ash, the mudflows will be the problem.
LOL… trying to imagine how the reporting of this would have been different had there been consumer cell phones back then?
For those of you who were budding geologists… I can imagine how fascinating this must have been.
Well, it would be much appreciated on my end if this doesn’t happen until after Labor Day, as the last eleven days of August, H and I will be in the Vancouver/Vancouver Island/Olympic Peninsula area on vacation! But we’re flying in/out of Seattle.
So… reading the article EK4 linked, am wondering what the geologists here think technology we have today might have done to give more warning to the 1980 eruption so that so many lives might not have been lost? With the warning signs they had two months prior, wouldn’t that kind of information, along with new technology be instrumental in predicting an event at Rainier? Even if it’s just a few hours.
The good thing about mud flows is that they are moving with the speed of a mudflow. So if the lahar warming systems work as expected, many will have a decent chance to evacuate.