
The Mount St. Helens Eruption Was the Volcanic Warning We Needed - jandrewrogers
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/science/mt-st-helens-eruption.html
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gxqoz
An interesting parallel to today from the Mount St. Helens eruption is what
happened in the city of Ritzville, Washington that was directly in the path of
much of the ash. Many motorists coming back from Eastern Washington got
stranded there because of poor visibility and up to six inches of ash on
almost everything. They overwhelmed the city's facilities and were effectively
quarantined within a school cafeteria. After two days a group of motorists
tried to break the quarantine:

"So two days after the eruption, a large group of "rebel motorists" chose to
ignore official warnings and try to make an escape from Ritzville. Most turned
around within a few miles as they encountered nasty, gritty ground blizzards
of ash. Some had to pull over when their clogged cars died. Police said didn't
know how many cars made it out, but they said it wasn't more than 100."

Source:
[https://www.historylink.org/File/9398](https://www.historylink.org/File/9398)
(From History Link, a great free encyclopedia of Washington State history.
Several states have projects like this online which are fun ways to learn
about the history of small towns, how a particular region reacted to a large
historical event, etc.)

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jandrewrogers
This was one of the most memorable events from my early childhood. We lived a
couple hundred kilometers east of the volcano, in the area where much of the
ash plume landed. It was a Sunday morning in our tiny farming town and people
were unaware the volcano erupted, it was people leaving church that first
noticed that a pitch black curtain was being pulled over the sky from the
west. It was unreal looking. When it passed over us, it was blacker than the
blackest nights outside, you could not see your hand in front of your face.
And then it started "snowing"...

It interfered with RF transmission where we lived, so the initial news that it
was a volcanic eruption was learned via landline telephones to people outside
the area. It looked pretty damn apocalyptic when it happened, particularly
since radio and television stopped working.

A really unique experience. You still see remnants of the ash piles in that
part of the Washington, 40 years later.

~~~
PopeDotNinja
Not nearly as dramatic, but I remember being in SoCal in 2003 during a rather
bad fire in October. I was at the drag races in Pomona with my girlfriend.
Looking west it was blue skies w/ scattered clouds. Looking east the sky
looked like it was full of black & gray clouds on fire. There was a light
layer of ash covering everything, too. It was pretty surreal. I've never seen
anything else like it.

~~~
dificilis
Even less dramatic, being somewhere near the edge of an Australian bush fire
in January this year.

Orange sun, burnt gum tree leaves raining down from the sky.

That was the warning we all needed about the hot future that awaits us.

Seems like a distant memory now - so much has happened since then.

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est31
> It could have been worse. As the volcano’s activity ramped up in March,
> scientists had to continually persuade the authorities to restrict access to
> all but law enforcement, volcano monitoring teams and other essential staff.
> Some groups protested, in an echo of events now occurring during the
> coronavirus pandemic, pointing to the impact the no-go zones were having on
> the local economy. If it wasn’t for the vigilance and insistence of
> scientists such as Dr. Johnston, the death toll could have been in the
> thousands.

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macintux
> Dr. Johnston, seeing the north face fall from Coldwater II, jumped on the
> radio. “Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!” he cried. Moments later, the
> blast engulfed the 30-year-old scientist. On another ridge two miles behind
> him, Gerry Martin, an amateur radio operator who was observing the volcano
> for the Washington Department of Emergency Services, saw the annihilation of
> Coldwater II. His last words were: “It’s going to get me, too.”

Haunting stuff.

~~~
mc32
There was a story about a husband and wife team[1] who got permission to fly
over the volcano as it was thought it wasn’t going to erupt immediately. On
their last flyby as they were taking pictures it erupted and they barely
escaped having put the plane in a nosedive to gain speed. They took some
pretty amazing photos from the air of the event.

[1] [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/05/mount-
st-...](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/05/mount-st-helens-
isnt-where-should-be-scientists-may-finally-know-why/)

~~~
skunkworker
Link for the images shot from the air

[https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/msh/debris.html](https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/msh/debris.html)

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kyleblarson
My wife's cousin was a student on this school trip. He has some interesting
memories and stories about the experience.

[https://www.nwnewsnetwork.org/post/age-6-he-and-his-
classmat...](https://www.nwnewsnetwork.org/post/age-6-he-and-his-classmates-
fled-mount-st-helens-40-years-later-reporter-recalls-day?fbclid=IwAR2Q9dni-
YWBVJv3Mx_9hXmyYP7Ig9asIVdspbJea9nesM8Swe_3sHhFsms)

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trwhite
[https://web.archive.org/web/20200519153036/https://www.nytim...](https://web.archive.org/web/20200519153036/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/science/mt-
st-helens-eruption.html)

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tectonic
Today’s xkcd: [https://xkcd.com/2308](https://xkcd.com/2308)

See the hover text ;)

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interestica
Any quick way to see hover on mobile?

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saagarjha
If you're on iOS, you can long press on the image.

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c22
Works in Chrome on Android too.

