My Look On Mt. Saint Helens
@RichardMeister (5328)
Otis Orchards, Washington
May 18, 2016 9:08pm CST
It’s all over the news. Today is the thirty-sixth anniversary of the volcanic erupted of Mt. Saint Helens in Washington state. It happened on a Sunday morning. I went out to visit with my foster mother. As we sat on her porch we could see the ash cloud coming.
I left my foster mother’s place and got back to the house I was housesitting just before the ash hit. It was a bit eerie for the sunny afternoon to turn dark enough to turn the street lights on.
I hunkered down in the house. On Monday I did not go to work because there was much concern about the ash getting into the car engine and ruining it.
The picture is one I took a couple of days after the explosion. You can still see a lot of ash in the air. Everything was covered with the light gray ash. The photo is a color photo.
Photo © 1980 by Richard L. Meister Jr.
6 people like this
7 responses
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
23 May 16
@JudyEv Spokane was too far away to be buried. The ash was brought over by the atmospheric winds. It took a good 3 to 4 hours after the eruption for the ash to reach Spokane. There was so much ash that it spread clear across the United States albeit was pretty thinned out by the time it got about halfway across the U.S. But there were claim some of the ash fell in New York about a week after the eruption. Mt. Saint Helens is about 50 miles (80.5 km.) from the west coast of the U.S. and a small about of the ash fell in New York on the east coast of the U.S.–just to give you an idea how far the ash went.
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@JudyEv (325346)
• Rockingham, Australia
23 May 16
@RichardMeister That was good. I was thinking about Pompeii and being buried alive.
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@JudyEv (325346)
• Rockingham, Australia
24 May 16
@RichardMeister That is some distance. I know when we have a bushfire here the ash can travel for miles too.
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@JohnRoberts (109857)
• Los Angeles, California
19 May 16
I have visited Mount Saint Helen's and see there is still scarring but nature has already begun recovering.
2 people like this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
19 May 16
Yes, they say things are beginning to come back.
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
20 May 16
The city swept the streets and residents washed off the sidewalks. Mother Nature took care of the rest. Yes, 36 years ago. Don't ask why they made a big deal about it this year instead of last year when it was the 35th anniversary. You must have been about 10 years old went Mt. St. Helen's went BOOM! (I just wrote that because I wanted to use "BOOM .")
1 person likes this
@much2say (53907)
• Los Angeles, California
20 May 16
BOOM is @RichardMeister 's word of the day 
! That's funny, yah, I wonder why they didn't make a bigger deal of it last year . . . or maybe they just forgot about it last year 
! Yah, I guess I was about my daughter's age when it happened. I remember a classmate of mine brought in a little jar with a bit of Mt. St. Helen's ash in it . . . I think a relative sent it to him.
! That's funny, yah, I wonder why they didn't make a bigger deal of it last year . . . or maybe they just forgot about it last year ! Yah, I guess I was about my daughter's age when it happened. I remember a classmate of mine brought in a little jar with a bit of Mt. St. Helen's ash in it . . . I think a relative sent it to him.1 person likes this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
20 May 16
@much2say That seemed to be the thing to do. Jar it up and sell it. People will do anything for a buck. I think I saved some just of show and tell (if you know what I mean). However, I have no idea what happened to it. I think I just decided it wasn't worth keeping and dumped it out.
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@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
19 May 16
It was an interesting time.
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@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
23 May 16
Yes, it blew a lot of the mountain away.
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
9 Nov 16
Yes, things are growing back fast than expected.
1 person likes this
@hereandthere (45651)
• Philippines
19 May 16
we also had ashfall when mt. pinatubo erupted in 1991.
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