May 18, 2012 - Remembering May 18, 1980


At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted.  Shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale, the north face of this tall symmetrical mountain collapsed in a massive rock debris avalanche. In a few moments this slab of rock and ice slammed into Spirit Lake, crossed a ridge 1,300 feet high, and roared 14 miles down the Toutle River. 

The avalanche rapidly released pressurized gases within the volcano. A tremendous lateral explosion ripped through the avalanche and developed into a turbulent, stone-filled wind that swept over ridges and toppled trees. Nearly 150 square miles of forest was blown over or left dead and standing. 

At the same time a mushroom-shaped column of ash rose thousands of feet skyward and drifted downwind, turning day into night as dark, gray ash fell over eastern Washington and beyond. Wet, cement-like slurries of rock and mud scoured all sides of the volcano. Searing flows of pumice poured from the crater. The eruption lasted 9 hours, but Mount St. Helens and the surrounding landscape were dramatically changed within moments. 

Fifty-seven people and thousands of animals were killed.   A vast, gray landscape lay where once the forested slopes of Mount St. Helens grew.


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Thirty-two years ago today, Mount St. Helens blew her top.  I remember it as though it were yesterday.

Saturday morning we packed up the motor home and headed for our favorite fishing spot.  We spent a lot of time at Badger Lake, up by Spokane.  We loved the campground, and the fishing was good.  Of course we took our three youngest children, but we left Barney the dog at home in the back yard.  One of my husband's employees had offered to check on him and make sure he had food and water.

We went out in the boat Sunday morning, just the two of us, and left the kids to play at the camp site with the oldest in charge.  We were enjoying a beautiful, warm day on the water when I noticed some very dark clouds forming in the west.  I told my husband it looked as though we were in for a really bad storm, so we'd better head back to the campground.  In the few minutes it took us to return, it got darker and darker, so by the time we reached the shore it was as black as night.  The children were waiting for us at the dock, wondering what was happening.....as were we.  We had no idea what was taking place.

We got everyone back to the motor home and turned on the radio.  That's when we discovered just what was happening to us.  We went back down to the boat and removed the battery to use at the motor home, so we could keep the radio on.  White flakes of ash had begun to fall from the sky.  It looked like it was snowing, but the air around us was stifling hot.  Trying to get some fresh air, I opened the windows in the motor home and hung wet towels over them to keep the ash from coming in.  We all settled in to listen to the radio, and to worry about whether we would survive through the night.

Survive we did.  We awoke to six inches of white ash covering everything.  There was nothing we could do but wait and wonder how we were going to get through this mess and back to our home, 120 miles away.

We had planned on only two days of fishing, so I hadn't brought a lot of supplies.  The small store at the lake didn't sell groceries, so we knew we had to at least get to nearby Williams Lake, where they had a fully equipped store.  It wasn't very far, maybe ten miles, but it took hours to get from one lake to the next.  We could only travel a mile or two at most before stopping to remove and try to shake the ash from the air filter on the motor home.  It was the longest ten miles I've ever travelled in my life.

We made it to Williams Lake on Monday afternoon, and purchased enough groceries to keep us eating for a few days.  I worried about the dog, and about our swimming pool that had just recently been opened for the summer.  According to the radio reports, our town had received a thick layer of the ash, a report I later found to be quite false.  We worried about our businesses.  We owned two service stations and a towing company, and the telephone lines were down, there was no way to reach our assistant manager or any of our employees.

Monday night was spent at Williams Lake, but on Tuesday morning we met up with another couple from our town.  They had found out the ash wasn't bad at all to the south of us, so we decided we would travel together and try to make it home.  We took off, still stopping every mile or two to clean out the air filters.  Our travel partners decided to take a secondary road south, while we felt staying on the main highway would be the safer option, so we parted company and we headed west toward Ritzville.  We arrived at Ritzville sometime Tuesday afternoon and made the turn south toward home.

We were still traveling in deep ash, and even though I still kept the windows open and wet towls hung over them, the ash inside the motor home was so thick I couldn't see the back of the coach from where I was sitting in the front.  It was so bad, I convinced my husband to turn around and go back to Ritzville.  I honestly felt the ash was going to suffocate my children.  We got the motor home turned around, which wasn't an easy feat on that highway, with nearly zero visibility.  We managed to jacknife the boat trailer into the rear of the motor home, causing some minor damage, and we headed back toward town.  As we approached the freeway overpass, the vehicle in front of us stopped.  We had to stop.....and the motor died.  It never ran again.

Our oldest daughter and I tied wet handkerchiefs around our nose and mouth and took off walking toward town.  We stopped at the very first motel, and as luck would have it a group of people had just vacated to try to make their way to their homes in Seattle.  We got not one but two rooms for our family of five, at a very nominal price.  The proprietor was charging only what it cost him to operate his business, rather than take advantage of the situation.  We would find out that there were many more fine citizens of that town who were willing to help wherever they could.  A local Ritzville farmer came to our aid.  He hooked up his truck to our motor home and towed it to a large pole building he owned near town.  He put the motor home and boat in the building for safe keeping as long as needed.  He taxied us from our motel, three times a day, to the local Lutheran Church where the church ladies were cooking and serving meals.  They fed a lot of stranded people, free of charge, out of the kindness of their hearts.  I'm sad to say our own Catholic Church's doors were closed and locked throughout this ordeal.  I'm happy to say we made a generous donation to the Ritzville Lutheran Church when the ordeal was over.

Phone service was finally restored, and we were happy to finally get in touch with people at home.  We found there was only a light dusting of the ash, the dog was fine, the swimming pool was clean, and the businesses were running as normal.

At midnight on Friday, five days after the eruption, we boarded a special train that was sent to Ritzville to bring "the refugees" home to the Tri-Cities.  We arrived in the wee hours of the morning, and rejoiced as we left the train and our feet hit the ground!  Home never looked so good.

It was several days before the tow truck was equipped with a special "snorkel" to keep the ash from clogging the filter, and it made the trip back to Ritzville to bring the motor home and boat home.  Our insurance paid for a new motor for the motor home.  It took forever to clean the ash from our boat (I later found out the kids sold some of it for $1 a bottle!).  It was definitely an experience of a lifetime, and one I never want to go through again.



33 comments:

  1. What an incredible saga. I never really thought about the impact on the surrounding areas. I see why it's so vivid in your memory.

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  2. wow what an experience. thanks of sharing

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  3. That sounds scary, especially with kids. I remember it happening, but I lived in Colorado at the time so it really didn't affect our lives. In fact it was the year I graduated from high school.

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  4. I can only imagine the fear you must have felt trying to care for your children during those five days. Thank you for sharing your story with me.

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  5. I'm so glad everything turned out ok for you. I was only 11yrs old but I remember hearing about it, I live in the UK.

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  6. Your story captivated me - you should submit it to a story or writing competition or magazine. Thank you for sharing because that is a once in a lifetime firsthand account

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  7. I was a year old when it happened, and living on the Olympic Penninsula. I don't remember it at all, and I'm kind of glad I don't, we were pretty far from the volcano luckily.

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  8. thank you for sharing your story and hope you won't have to go through this again. i can't imagine what it was like in person.

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  9. WOW! That was a powerful recollection. I agree with Shannan, that would be worthy of submission to a magazine or something. It's a fascinating glimpse into something many of us can't even fathom going through, and yet it's scary and terrifying at the same time.

    Thank you for sharing...

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  10. Your story was truly amazing. When I had finished reading it, I said wow. You should submit it to Real Simple magazine since they are always looking for stories such as yours.

    Lisa

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  11. That's a riveting account! I have only a vague memory of the eruption and had no idea of the personal stories involved.

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  12. I was 8yrs old and living in Ireland in 1980 but I remember hearing about the eruption. Our family will be visiting Mt. St. Helen's next weekend as it happens, so it was timely you should post this today. We will be bringing our four young children and I will think of you and tell them your story as we visit. thanks Granny.

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  13. That's a fascinating story! Thanks for sharing.

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  14. Wow, Granny! That must have been very scary. It sounds like you and your family took the situation in stride and made the best of it thanks to some very nice people.

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  15. Thanks for sharing your story. It makes it so much more real to hear of the struggles you had just to travel take care of your family during that hard time.

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  16. Granny, Thanks for sharing about your experience. It's amazing what you and your family went through.

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  17. Hi Annie, I am sure glad that it turned out you were all safe. What a scarey experience. Nancy

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  18. My family had just moved to Coeur D Alene (from Hawaii), I wasn't even a glimmer in my parents eye. My mothers garden the next year took off like never before due to the ash! They had a good 4", and my parents kept a coffee can of the ash in a back corner of a closet for years and years. I remember finding it and thinking how odd it was to keep it. They also took dozens of pictures of the yard, of the city, of the ash coming down... Amazing memories!

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  19. What an adventure! At the time I bet it didn't seem much like an adventure, but wow! Now looking back, I bet you have a lot of respect for that experience. I'm glad your vehicle was the only casualty.

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  20. Wow! What an ordeal! Thanks for telling us about it. I've wondered what it was like for the people who had to deal with the ash. We live about 30 miles from Mt. Rainier, which is still considered an active volcano, so it's on my mind.

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  21. Hi Annie, that is an incredible story! I remember the day very well and the ash that fell on my hometown was from a few days later. Thinking back on it now, it was like the earth had been scorched after a nuclear bomb. Everything was ashen gray. As a little girl, I used an old toothbrush to sweep up some ash and save it in a mason jar. I believe my mother still has it. Thanks for sharing your experience! Cheers, Jenni

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  22. That story was incredible, I agree! The survival aspects remind me of being in Hurricane Andrew in Florida. It's amazing what you have to do and what is unavailable when a natural disaster strikes! The thing that freaks me in living here vs Florida is that you can have warning of a hurricane but a volcano or earthquake...not so much! I was also here for that big nisqually earthquake and T was out of town, ironically in San Franciso! lol!
    Thanks for sharing your story and I loved the various people who supported you guys along the way. If it were Florida, they'd price gouge you at gas stations, hotels and any rebuilders or car repairs. So glad you got the motor home covered by insurance. Do they cover natural disasters like that here? hmmm.

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  23. Wow! What an experience! Must have been very scary. Thank goodness you all were safe.

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  24. Than you for the light reading, Gran. :D

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  25. WOW! How stressful, but very cool to have those memories.

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  26. I definitely remember that day too. Was in Spokane so the ash fall was not near as intense as you experienced in south central Washington state.

    Five years after Mount St. Helens, I married my husband on May 18, 1985. We just celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary and we always reflect on the anniversary of Mount Saint Helens eruption at the same time.

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  27. That story sounds strangly familiar...oh ya, I was there! So did the couple who took the other route make it home before us?

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  28. Thanks to all of you, I've enjoyed reading your comments.

    Malia, it did turn out the ash was good for gardens! I suppose it added needed minerals to the soil. I vaguely remember even the small amount we got at our house was beneficial to the garden that year.

    Alison, they say when (not if, when) Mt. Rainier blows it will be much more devastating than the Mt. St. Helens eruption.

    LOL, Kitsap. What an occasion to be sharing your anniversary!

    Amy (for those wondering, this is my daughter Amy, who was 6 years old when this took place), yes, that was Mr. and Mrs. Crater, the owners of Crater's Jewelry in Pasco. They went south at Sprague, and went through Washtucna and Kahlotus. They traveled some secondary roads that were out in the middle of nowhere, while we felt safer staying on the highways. They made it home that same day just fine, and we were stranded! Our main problem was from the ash being blown by other vehicles, limiting visibility and clogging air filters. They traveled lonely roads, with no ash being blown around by other cars and trucks. On the freeway, some of the semi trucks had already been fitted with long snorkels, which raised their air intake above the ash. They pushed on through, but caused big problems for the rest of us.

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  29. http://m.spokesman.com/galleries/2010/may/17/volcanic-ash-blankets-region/

    there's a great linkie to photos that I found while being fascinated with this story again!

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    1. Thank you for the link, Amy T.! That's exactly what it was like.

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  30. I can't imagine the concern and stress for you, Mr. Granny and the children. I am so glad it all turned out OK for you.

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  31. Amazing story! I too remember it well even though I was only 10, we lived out there at the time and my dad was a huge mountain climber and had climbed St. Helens "with her top on" only 3 months earlier....I remember he was pretty shaken up hearing about it.

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    1. Erin, Mr. Granny and I had flown between Portland and the Tri-Cities, so we had seen the steam plume. We came this close to spending that weekend at Mt. St. Helens, so the kids could see it first hand, and just changed our minds at the last minute, opting for the fishing trip instead! No doubt, if we had kept to our original plan, we would have been among the fatalities.

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