For me they were:
1. John F Kennedy's assassination
2. The eruption of Mount St Helen's*
3. The great Earthquake in San Francisco*
4. Princess Diana dying in a car crash
5. 9/11*
Three out of these five instances,* I just happened to be at work in a hospital.
Three different hospitals.
Two different countries.
Today is the 32nd anniversary of Mount St Helen's eruption.
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| Photo Credit: Jim Nieland, US Forest service 1980 before the eruption |
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| Photo Credit: Lyn Topinka, US Geological Survey 1982 post eruption |
I remember how smoky the sky was - the red sun and the haze over the valley. At first I didn't know what was going on....then someone mentioned that they had heard the radio announcement that people with respiratory illnesses should stay indoors because of the eruption of a volcano in Washington, just over the border.
By the end of the day, a fine coating of ash settled all over everything.
Living more directly in the path of the plume of ash, my husband has a much more interesting story.
My husband said that there were ashes settling like snow all over their cars and in the streets one hour after the eruption at approximately 8:30 am. By 3 in the afternoon the sky was dark. Thunder boomed in the dark - and sometimes the only light was from the streetlights and the lightning.
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| Photo Credit: Herb Hackenburg, THG file photo Ash fallout from Mt St Helen's |
People had to shovel off their roofs because of the heavy load all the ash created. Heavy equipment was sent into the street and plowed the ash to the center of the road then loaded onto dump trucks. It took 10 weeks to complete the cleanup of the 20 thousand tons of ash from the streets and the tops of houses.
The airport was closed for seven days.
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| Credit: NOAA's Air Resources library. The path of the Ash from Mt St Helen's in 1980 |
Paths traveled over North America by 18 May 1980 Mt. St. Helen's ash at 3, 9, 16, and 18 km altitudes. Tick marks along each line show position of ash cloud front at that altitude every 24 hours, at noon GMT (0550 local time at Mt. St. Helen's). The date at each tick mark is indicated. For clarity, the 18 km path is shown as a dashed line. The 21 May cloud from at 9 km altitude is just off the map to the E. Data provided by NOAA's Air Resources Laboratory.
Were you were affected by the volcano?? Certainly the path of the ash followed a wide swath of countryside across the nation.
The only visible remains from the volcano in my husband's home town is the lush green parks from the fertilizer the ash provided.
If you have the time, click on the link just above the photo of the mountain. It's a great pictorial of the history of that time.
