"Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!"

A pause for a little reflection..........Today marks the 30th anniversary of the eruption of Mount St. Helens. Of all of nature's various displays of it's force and power, a volcanic eruption is one of it's most potent. The title to this post is the last transmission of the scientist monitoring the mountain, David Johnston, made to alert his fellow scientists. Johnston died as a result of the blast.

30 years ago, I was living 300 miles east of the mountain and remember the day vividly. The mountain had been rumbling a few months earlier with periodic small eruptions but nothing that was considered terribly harmful. I thought that I lived far enough away that I would not be impacted in any way. Then early that Sunday morning, a radio bulletin announced that a full eruption was occurring. At the time, people had no idea of what the impact would be on anyone.

From 300 miles away, allow me to describe the events of that day. Darkness came at 3 pm as all of the streetlights lit up, the sky rained ash for 8 hours, auto parts stores were swamped with customers looking for air filters for their vehicles, TV news warned that breathing the abrasive ash would be harmful to your lungs (everyone had cheap face mask filters hanging on the rear view mirrors of their cars the next day and for 3 months after). If you have ever emptied your woodstove or fireplace of the ash and realize the mess in that small firebox area, imagine cleaning the entire surface area of the parking lot of your business, the outdoor tennis court, or your small patio at home. Cars were covered, equipment was covered, anything outdoors had up to 3 inches of the gritty ash; your indoor space had a heavy layer of dust; it was a mess. Trying to hose it down with water simply made a thick mud. Trying to blow it out with a blower just made a blinding cloud. There was only one way to clean it up: with a snow shovel and broom. And it was heavy. Yet, everyone knew that this was a rare occurrence and took it in stride. (I threw away the authentic St Helens ash Mrs. Kfred had saved at the time a couple of years ago. I caught holy hell for that one, but, could still easily replace it today by dumping the remains of a cigarette ash tray in to a jar. Ash is ash.)

Eventually, 57 deaths were attributed to the blast and ensuing damage. At the time, the entire area around the mountain was considered a dead zone. Scientists were worried the area would be barren for the unforeseeable future. Nature, however, (being much wiser than man) had other plans. As shown below in these two pictures, much has changed. The mountain is slowly rebuilding it's dome to once again explode in the future, plants and wildlife flourish, and the entire area is a working laboratory for the scientific community. If you ever get a chance to visit, I encourage you to do so. You simply will not be disappointed.