43 Years Ago....

[MaxEntropy]

Happy Mt St Helens day!

I grew up in SW Washington, in the shadow of Mt St Helens. Google Earth says our house was 38 miles (as the crow flies) from the mountain. I was in 6th grade at the time. A friend had stayed over the night before and we were outside playing catch with a football. On one throw, the ball appeared to shake in the air and I let it drop on the ground being very confused by what I saw. Obviously the ball did not shake, it was the ground I was standing on that shook. Very shortly after, a neighbor stuck her head outside and told us to go inside, the mountain had erupted.

As I recall, the first activity really started on March 27 (I remember because it was my mom's birthday) and activity on the mountain continued past May 18. In fact, even though the typical winds blew all the ash away from us, occasionally the wind would shift and we would get some. My last day of the 6th grade was cancelled due to having 6" of ash on the ground. That was a weird time - people were discouraged from driving because a) standard air filters would not capture the fine ash particles (state patrol had these huge external air filters mounted on their cruisers), and b) when the ash get wet (hey it rains in SW Washington in the spring), it was slick as snot - not quite as bad as ice, but close to it (at least according to my dad). We would put masks on and make the couple mile walk to the grocery store to get necessities. The ash was also really heavy when it got wet. People had roofs cave in and gutters ripped off their houses, so my dad and I had to deal with it. I was on a ladder with a garden trowel scooping it out of the gutters and he was on the roof with a shovel.

Anyway, that was my experience. Anyone else in the area have any recollections of the time? Especially anyone who may have been east of the mountain and got the brunt of the ash?

Edited to add a gif of the north side of the mountain collapsing, triggering the eruption

[MaxEntropy]

Here is a before and after picture

[StrokerAce]

I was a young lad living 180 miles south of there and distinctly remember this.

My experience wasn't quite as deep as yours but I recall the sun being out but the sky being dark. It was very ominous. I was 8 so I didn't really "get it" at the time but my wife and I visited there around 1998 and seeing the floods and landslides and destruction was eye opening. I remember piles of ash (similar to when it snows in the NE) everywhere. 

Hard to believe it was so long ago..