May 18, 1980 Mount Saint Helens

May 18, 2008 at 8:03 AM
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We were living in Bellingham Washington then. All 3 of my kids had been out doing their paper routes and we were all back in our beds catching a few more winks. At around 0830 that morning we hear this "huge" explosion. Now mind you where we were was over 200 miles northwest of Mt Saint Helens. All the kids had come into my bedroom and were wondering what was going on. At first I thought a jet from Whibey Island had crashed. There was nothing on CNN or any other news station. It was several hours before even the news stations had anything. Scary huh? My husband had just caught a ship the day before and was just up the coast and didn't hear the blast due to having Mt Rainier blocking that. There were no cell phones at that time, so since I didn't hear from him I thought everything was ok.

As the news dribbled in we were all just awe struck at the size of the blast. then the debris going down the Tutle river. The huge ash cloud had gone towards the southeast covering the Portland area as if it we midnight.

We really didn't get any of the ash till the cloud had circled the globe. Close to 50 some people were killed and over 700 animals and birds. Our emergency broadcast system never went off, and about a week later all we got was the vice president to see if we needed any government help. Real winners huh? I guess NOW everyone in government really watches the mountain. But, I can say this is another reason I just don't trust any government officials and all their double talk.

Blast

. Please remember those who lost their lives that day. thank you

Deborah

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May 18, 1980 Mount Saint Helens

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