Mukilteo Musings

Natural Disasters Part 2:

Fast forward about 15 years from that day in 7th grade to 1980. We had begun our post schooling lives in Seattle and had lived here about a year. I was working as a lawyer in downtown Seattle and my husband was at the Univ. of WA beginning his career as a scientist. All of those years of school between the two of us and we were now making money, living in gorgeous Seattle, and we had no intention of ever having children. My parents attended my swearing in ceremony to the Washington State Bar and I had never seen my Dad so proud of me.

Mount St. Helens had begun acting up that spring. Mt. Baker to the north had always had steam vents but this volcano acting up to the south of Seattle was a surprise. I specifically remember Mount St. Helens was the topic of elevator discussion by lawyers in the King County Courthouse. The puffing and spouting continued for several months and nobody really knew what would happen.

Everybody who lived in Seattle remembers what they were doing on May 18, 1980. The day was one of "our" days--clear and beautiful and we were jogging with Monty, our Golden Retriever, at 8 in the morning on Lake Washington. Mt. Rainier loomed in our faces. All of a sudden, I heard this huge boom. I remember being bugged because I thought sonic booms had been outlawed over populated areas but there was mysteriously no jet. We never thought another moment about it all day. Late afternoon, we were invited to a bar-b-q and when we got there everyone was chattering that Mount St. Helens had blown up; we had not had on the TV all day so we had no idea. The boom we heard....that was it!

Interestingly, all of the ash and debris headed east. My Dad called that night and said it was raining ash in Helena, MT. He was teasing me and asking me what we were thinking sending our mountain top over to them. 55 people were killed that day--many of them campers in their tents. But Mount St. Helens would claim one more life.

Stay tuned for Natural Disasters Part 3.