Mt. St. Helens Eruption, 1980, by S. A. Johnston

From MemoryArchive

Who: S. A Johnston
What: The eruption of Mt. St. Helens
When: 1980
Where: Vantage point of Spokane Washington

ORIENTATION: Geographically, Mt. St. Helens is in the Cascades mountain range, perhaps 75 miles north of Portland, 30 miles east of I-5. Mt. Rainier, slightly north, is an inactive volcano.

• I have since concluded that it was a very good thing the eruption occurred on a Sunday (May 18, 1980). My wife Connie and I had been following the daily reports that the mountain was close to erupting. That morning the radio news told us there had been a major eruption about 8:30. We followed the unfolding news on TV and saw some very dramatic pictures. We also received our first warnings that ash from the volcano would begin falling on Spokane in the early afternoon.

• By 1:30 p. m. Connie and I had posted ourselves at the bluff on High Drive (a short walk from our house on S. Manito Blvd.) so that we would have a clear view to the southwest. We could see the dark cloud as it approached, and when the ash began falling on us, we returned home. The color was a light gray. It differed sharply from snow: it would be with us season after season.

• We had only a one car garage, so I elected to put our '72 Mercury Cougar there and Connie's car was put in the driveway. I believe we found something to cover hers with because we could see there was going to be a lot of ash -- characteristics unknown.

• I remember being rather shocked late in the day to hear stories of people driving some distances through the ash who were having to be rescued because their autos' air filters clogged up. When the problem was ignored by the owners, any number of engines were burned up.

• Businesses throughout Spokane County were closed the remainder of Sunday -- Monday and Tuesday, as well. On Wednesday, we were told to reopen the Radio Shack store on North Division (which had been closed by 1988) where I was working in sales and customer service. Similarly, Connie stayed home from her DSHS office.

• City government spent an enormous amount of money cleaning off the streets. It's my understanding that they initially tried washing the ash into the sewer system, but the ash was so dense -- made up mainly of particles of stone -- that it immediately clogged the sewers. Then they had to combine the use of plows and loaders with trucks which would carry the ash away to be dumped.

• We had enough food and our electricity was not affected. We were able to go the first two days without using our cars. When we finally did drive someplace, the car stirred up the ash, making it swirl around us and interfere with driving the car safely.

• Ash which had accumulated on the roof of the house sifted over time onto the ground. So the deepest accumulation of the ash was directly down from the edges of the roof.

• On the radio and TV we heard about the loss of life -- 57 people, most of whom died in the first three or four minutes after the eruption. The first to die was most likely old Harry Truman who lived on the mountain with his many cats. He was 80 and preferred to die in his home at Spirit Lake rather than continue living, though somewhere else. Then there was David Johnston, scientist, who was at an observation point in close proximity to the mountain. He was killed within seconds in the initial blast. Like Johnston, a number of these who died left no bodies to be found.

• Away from town, snowplows had been used on the major highways to clear the ash. As a result, for more than a year, at least a small accumulation of ash beside the road could still be seen. The sight of it always reminded me of that once-in-a-lifetime event, the eruption of a nearby (perhaps 350 miles from Spokane) volcano. The severity of the ash that fell on different areas varied widely. I was further impressed with the enormity of the eruption upon learning that the ash had reached parts of Western Montana.

• The biggest news from the eruption was not the ash, however, but the flooding. A number of Westside rivers became torrents that carried trees, automobiles, even houses downstream. At some point in time the debris created dams downstream and caused the water to overflow the river banks. Also, the rivers wiped out numerous bridges and some highways. The total loss was easily in the tens of millions of dollars. Hundreds of people lost everything they owned due to the flooding. Those who were self-insured rarely had any hope of rebuilding.

• Several years later, Connie and I drove to the scene of the devastation. Whereas the mountain peak had been at an elevation of over 13,000 feet, the blast tore the top off the volcano, and now the peak is closer to 11,000 feet. There were thousands of board feet of trees floating on the lake part way up the mountain. We saw stands of trees which were knocked over in the direction away from the volcano. The vegetation had not yet returned, although there were clear signs that it would. Virtually all plants and animals within a radius of more than 5 miles were killed immediately by the superheated gases traveling as much as 600 mph. I'm picturing some burrowing animals which could have survived initially. I doubt, however, that there was any vegetation for them to eat. So I would have expected that they died also.

• Much has been written and otherwise documented concerning the eruption. While it was enlightening concerning certain details, it couldn't match the experience I had in witnessing the changes in Spokane following this cataclysmic eruption.