Where were you, 30 years ago today? At 8:32 am (PDT) on Sunday, May 18, 1980, a 5.1 earthquake took place in Mt. St. Helen's mountain, located near Portland Oregon in the USA.I was getting ready for church in my bedroom downstairs, and I heard a loud thud. I assumed my little sister, Marie, had fallen off her stool upstairs in the bathroom. (she used it to brush her teeth, even though she was 9 years old; she was very small for her age)
My Mom yelled down the stairs to me, asking me if I was OK. I said, "It wasn't me, Mom!"
Then my Mom hurriedly turned on the radio, and there was an announcement that Mt. St. Helen's had blown its top. We were so surprised that we felt the boom all the way up here in Vancouver, BC. We didn't stay home to listen to any more news; church was more important, so off we went. Plus back then, we didn't have instant updates on the radio, TV, or Internet, seeing as the Internet wasn't used for common mortals at that time.
But we bought the newspaper the next day, and later when Leona and I decided to travel to Portland OR in July, by the Amtrak train, we saw the devastation caused by the piles and piles of grey ash, clogging up the rivers along the way. We stayed at the Apostolic Faith campgrounds for the annual camp meeting, and there was ash all over the place. Leona brought some back in a jar for my Mom and she still has it. Somewhere in my stuff I have a tiny little Mt St Helen's volcano, made from ash, and a little bag of ash to sit on top.
It was a very exciting time in our history.
Here is a wonderful website with pictures and the history of this mountain.
Where were YOU on this day?
1 comment:
I lived in Hawaii then and was looking after an old gal who had relatives in the Mt St Helen's area. It really wasn't a big news highlight in Hawaii as we had our own volcano that erupted frequently and still does....
Post a Comment