39 years ago today. Mt St Helens

[Walt Longmire]

My life was changed forever. We lost 2 sides of logging equipment and 2 timber fallers. If the mountain had blown while we were at work, there would have been 9 widows in my family.

[Gaston_Convert]

Most people remember where they were when the mountain blew, but I don't. My youngest brother was with my dad cutting firewood in the hills and they heard it explode. Weird. Maybe I just wasn't in a place to hear it.

[Eric]

I was in Houston. I was twelve or so. I remember the news coverage.

 

[DWARREN123]

I remember it. Doesn't seem that long ago to me.

[Walt Longmire]

I hiked in through the blast area a couple days after the eruption from the Green River side. We were hoping we might discover that our fallers might have  survived somewhere. It was raining and couldn't see the mountain. Heard lots of rumbling and didn't know if it was more eruptions but found out later it was rock falls and landslides as the crater sluffed off. The ash was wet and stuck to our boots like mud. In areas where it was deeper the rain caused a crust to form and we could walk on top of it like crusty snow. Right up until you broke through. The ash underneath was hot as hell. Had to hump towards a log or stump to get out of it. Hiked many miles that day to get to our logging operation to see if out timber fallers had a chance. (They didn't) Our equipment was screwed up beyond description. I finally found parts from our fallers pickup so we knew they were on site for the eruption. Pickup was gone. Discovered a few months later that it had been blown across the landscape, shedding heavy parts first, and then the wadded up sheet metal. The dashboard was right near Shultz Creek and I found some left overs from one of our men there. Sad times for our family. I had 2 cousins that were camping in the mountains above the south fork of the Toutle River. The eruption blew away from where they were but pulled so much wind with it that old growth trees were being tore down. Mike and Pat were likely the closest people to the eruption to survive. Our 3rd generation logging business was gone. Tons of heavy equipment twisted up like pretzels. A 105' Tillman tower with Skagit BU80C drums torn from it's old growth guy line stumps and tossed into a broken pile. A Link Belt 108 log loader on a Clark undercarriage was rolled 2 1/2 times. Manitowoc log loader had all the sheet metal blasted off and the boom ripped off. The counterweight was facing the blast. TD24 International dozer and a brand new International TD20 had all the light metal and guards  blasted off and sandblasted all the paint off. Firetruck was blown into Shultz Creek and the water from Hanaford lake above our equipment was blown out of it's basin and washed down the creek drainage like the mother of all flash floods and took the fire truck an untold distance down the drainage shredded to bits.

[Walt Longmire]

Our logging site was 4 miles from the peak. We were right behind Coldwater Ridge. If you go to the visitor center and stand there looking into the crater, just turn around 180 and look at the saddle between the hills. Our equipment was right behind that. Also notice how the landscape away from the crater was scoured. Not even an old growth stump left in the ground. Just rocks and ash. That's it.  Inside the entrance to the visitor center is a plaque with the names of the dead on it. I knew most of them. 2 were our employees. 2 more were my newly wed next door neighbors. They were fishing at Fawn Lake just a mile or less from our equipment.  My dad helped the father of the husband search for them for almost a year. Finally my dad found what was left of Christy's body  down the drainage from Fawn Lake. She had been washed down by the water displaced from the lake in the blast. She was identified by her wedding ring. Her husband is still out there.  

Edited May 19, 2019 by Walt Longmire

[kerbie18]

Mt. Helens errupted a couple weeks before I was born, ya old fart ?

[Dric902]

I was 28 and in FRG. Saw it on AFN

 

.

[tadbart]

I was five, and recovering from my father's recent suicide. This eruption was the first major World Event that I recall. It made a mark, and instilled in me a fascination for geology. My Grandma lived in Longview at the time, and sent me a jar of ash. I sure wish I still had that, but it disappeared somewhere over the years.

The site still looks like sheer devastation. I was out there a few years back, and on approach, everything is all green and beautiful, and then instantly all the trees are knocked over flat. Truly awe-inspiring and humbling to see.

 

It was surreal, driving through that little town, recalling stories told about the actions of the residents, passing the firehouse, going over a bridge over the river and imagining the horrors that those people experienced...

I'm sorry for the loss of your friends, family, equipment, and livelihood.

[Moshe]

I was at my Grandparent's while my father was at OTS.  It was Oregon.  The place where the sun rarely shined.  I woke up and saw gray snow everywhere.  Apparently, my grumpy German grandmother sent him out to shovel.   I had never seen ash as deep as snow.  So, I asked the inevitable to my Grandfather, "Did it snow gray?"  

"No, boy, it didn't."

Edited May 19, 2019 by Moshe

[Walt Longmire]

3 hours ago, tadbart said:

I was five, and recovering from my father's recent suicide. This eruption was the first major World Event that I recall. It made a mark, and instilled in me a fascination for geology. My Grandma lived in Longview at the time, and sent me a jar of ash. I sure wish I still had that, but it disappeared somewhere over the years.

The site still looks like sheer devastation. I was out there a few years back, and on approach, everything is all green and beautiful, and then instantly all the trees are knocked over flat. Truly awe-inspiring and humbling to see.

 

It was surreal, driving through that little town, recalling stories told about the actions of the residents, passing the firehouse, going over a bridge over the river and imagining the horrors that those people experienced...

I'm sorry for the loss of your friends, family, equipment, and livelihood.

My mother worked at the Toutle Fire Dept. When the earthquake and eruption happened my dad was in the shower. Mom was just leaving to go to the church and turn the heat up. She pulled out of the driveway and looked up the highway towards the mountain. Saw the massive eruption and headed directly to the fire station and set off the alarm to evacuate. They and my brother and his family headed to my place in Vader. They had already stashed a lot of their important stuff at my place. I did not know about the eruption yet. I was at the church in Vader. My pastor came to me and said, "Your parents just called. The mountain has erupted and they are headed to your place." I went right home and met them there. We watched the events unfolding on the news channels. The news people were talking about a 200' wall of mud and debris coming down the Toutle River and showing video of some of it. I asked my dad, knowing he would know the answer, "Dad, how high is your house above the river?" He looked at me with a very straight face and said, "185 feet."  Thankfully by the time the mudflow got to Toutle it had spread out some and wasn't so high. The worry then was that it would stack up in the river at the Hollywood Gorge just below the bridge. If you study the geology of the area you will discover the Toutle River didn't always flow where it does now, and used to flow right through where Toutle and Silver Lake are. Toutle is built on a past very large mudflow. Stuff we didn't know back then.

[Walt Longmire]

3 hours ago, tadbart said:

I was five, and recovering from my father's recent suicide. This eruption was the first major World Event that I recall. It made a mark, and instilled in me a fascination for geology. My Grandma lived in Longview at the time, and sent me a jar of ash. I sure wish I still had that, but it disappeared somewhere over the years.

The site still looks like sheer devastation. I was out there a few years back, and on approach, everything is all green and beautiful, and then instantly all the trees are knocked over flat. Truly awe-inspiring and humbling to see.

 

It was surreal, driving through that little town, recalling stories told about the actions of the residents, passing the firehouse, going over a bridge over the river and imagining the horrors that those people experienced...

I'm sorry for the loss of your friends, family, equipment, and livelihood.

Sorry about your dad. I lost my brother to suicide 6 years ago. I have learned more about that than I ever thought I would need to know. I have a book on my Kindle that was most helpful. "Finding Peace Without All The Pieces."  

[Huaco Kid]

We are all scurrying around on one of the smallest bombs in our solar system.

We'd better hurry up and ban more straws.

[tadbart]

37 minutes ago, Walt Longmire said:

Sorry about your dad. I lost my brother to suicide 6 years ago. I have learned more about that than I ever thought I would need to know. I have a book on my Kindle that was most helpful. "Finding Peace Without All The Pieces."  

Sir, I thought it was you who related the firsthand story about the fire department, back when I was a pup on some other site. Really made me appreciate what I was seeing out there. Your personal experience made that part of my trip much more tangible. For what it's worth, I appreciate you sharing your experience.

 

Suicide can rock one's world like a volcano. I'm not the person I was gonna be, because of my dad's decision. As I'm sure the loss of your brother affected you. I think the thing is, just keep showing up. It's worked for me, for just about everything, so far- to just keep jumping through the hoops. My condolences for your loss, Friend. Perhaps one day in the relatively near future, I'll get to shake your hand.

[BigBull 301]

I was in Yakima, WA out target shooting. Heard it blow, saw it coming our way. Drove home and awaited my wife and 3 year old son to return from church.

By noon it was pitch black out, the smell of sulfur was almost overwhelming. Hot and humid.....for days. Shoveled and swept that ash for weeks.

Within sixty days lost head gaskets on both of our rigs. 

 

Accepted a position with Weyerhaeuser in Portland Oregon on October 16, 1980.

[Walt Longmire]

1 hour ago, tadbart said:

Sir, I thought it was you who related the firsthand story about the fire department, back when I was a pup on some other site. Really made me appreciate what I was seeing out there. Your personal experience made that part of my trip much more tangible. For what it's worth, I appreciate you sharing your experience.

 

Suicide can rock one's world like a volcano. I'm not the person I was gonna be, because of my dad's decision. As I'm sure the loss of your brother affected you. I think the thing is, just keep showing up. It's worked for me, for just about everything, so far- to just keep jumping through the hoops. My condolences for your loss, Friend. Perhaps one day in the relatively near future, I'll get to shake your hand.

That site may have been a machinery site. 

[Lazy R]

Hell of a story, Walt. Hard to imagine being that close.

I lived north of Spokane. Was hanging out with some guys in the afternoon, and the sky turned black like a lid was being slid across, then was night at about 2pm. Ash began falling and we went to the store and bought beer. It was being cleaned out. Went to work the next day; we were closed but we cleaned up ash which took a lot of work.

[Walt Longmire]

After the eruption I worked on the mudflow on the Cowlitz River recovering logs that had been washed down from Weyerhaeuser's operations. We used FMC tank mounted skidders for this. They worked well on the mudflow where most anything else would be stuck. Found all kinds of stuff. Including dead horses.