This post isn't about faith or Templars, but it's always kind of fun to get to know our members in other aspects of their lives, so in that vein, I share the following.
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I was 21 years old when this happened. Since I'm a Pacific Northwesterner, I'm not sure how many of you are aware of this event. If you're along my age-ish and even though you may not have been a PNW'er, you likely heard about it. I make a post on Facebook every yea... moreThis post isn't about faith or Templars, but it's always kind of fun to get to know our members in other aspects of their lives, so in that vein, I share the following.
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I was 21 years old when this happened. Since I'm a Pacific Northwesterner, I'm not sure how many of you are aware of this event. If you're along my age-ish and even though you may not have been a PNW'er, you likely heard about it. I make a post on Facebook every year on this day. Here's what I share each year:
๐๐ฒ ๐๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐จ๐ ๐๐ญ. ๐๐ญ. ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ง๐ฌ, ๐๐๐ฒ ๐๐, ๐๐๐๐
๐
๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ฒ ๐๐๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐ ๐๐ซ๐๐๐ฎ๐๐ญ๐๐ ๐๐ข๐ ๐ก ๐๐๐ก๐จ๐จ๐ฅ
Mount St. Helens is most notorious for its major 1980 eruption, the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States. Fifty-seven people were killed; 250 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles of railways, and 185 miles of highway were destroyed. A massive debris avalanche triggered by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale caused an eruption that reduced the elevation of the mountain's summit from 9,677 ft to 8,363 ft, leaving a 1 mile wide horseshoe-shaped crater. The debris avalanche was up to 0.7 cubic miles in volume.
I lived in Deary, Idaho, at the time, just ten miles east from where I live now, in Troy. My location is about 400 miles northeast of the volcano. Dark ash clouds moved in around 2 o'clock p.m. P.S.T. It wasn't long before it became completely dark as ash began falling from the sky and blanketing the local area with anywhere from four to six inches of the fine, powdery ash.
May 18, 1980, was a Sunday. The next day, through six inches of ash, I drove my little Toyota Corolla to work ten miles away, in Troy. When I arrived, my bosses were surprised I had even shown up and that I had driven my car in the ash. I had no idea the ash could possibly wreak havoc with the carโs engine. I worked in the office of a cedar fence mill and the mill had been shut down for the day (and subsequently for the entire week following the eruption). My bosses promptly sent me back home and told me not to return until I was called, which was a week later.
That afternoon, when the local paper was delivered, it was awash in headlines and stories about the eruption and the fallout in my area. Living 400 miles from the mountain, I cannot even begin to imagine living any closer and dealing with the devastation in the immediate area. It was bad enough dealing with six inches of ash here.
The local newspaper carried the story in apocalyptic print on the front page, with many follow-up articles in the days afterward. Any person that lived here may very well still have a small container of the ash and will tell you it was likely the freakiest day of their life. It is a day I will never forget.
