Washington State University - Chinook Yearbook (Pullman, WA)

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PULLMAN ASH HOLE OF THE WEST! Mount St. Helens, a serene lady of the Cascades, exploded into a killer at 8:31 a.m. May 18, 1980 as she blew 1300 feet of solid rock from her 9,677 feet snow- covered top. State officials said that there will never be a final death count from the eruption of the volcano because there were many peo¬ ple in the area to watch Mount St. Helens as she started to act up. Governor Dixy Lee Ray said the final damages will total 2.6 billion dollars. At Washington State University, the sky was starting to turn black by 11 a.m. and by mid-afternoon the street lights came on and the birds went to bed. The sun had disappeared behind the ash and the after¬ noon was night-like. The most lasting affect of the volcano was the ash which left everyone attempting to figure out how to ' clean up the mess. Experts in the Moscow-Pullman area esti¬ mated that the fallout amounted to eight tons per acre, and that is 300 miles from the blast area. The ash, gritty and very fine, got into everything. Car eingines stopped, people had a hard time breathing and daily life ground to a halt. Pullman and Moscow public schools gave up and turned chil¬ dren out for the summer. At Washington State, President Glenn Terrell gave up four days of college for 16,000 plus stu¬ dents and then ordered classes to start again. The Daily Evergreen, a student newspaper, continued to publish and other needed employees manned their posts. The people who did venture outside were advised to wear mouth and nose pro¬ tection. Terrell, after meeting with experts of all kinds, allowed students to apply for emergency medical clearance to leave school and over 3600 eventually left. Many students thought that the mass exodus had more to do with getting out of final tests rather than fear of the ash. Mount St. Helens put Washington into the news for more than two weeks as national media and scientists rushed to the volcano. Time magazine stated: “In Pull¬ man (pop. 21,000) students from Washington State University jammed the Barley and Hops tavern for “eruption spe¬ cials” — pitchers of $1 beer. Other stu¬ dents held end of the world parties — one lasted three days non-stop. The university said the clean-up cost over $500,000, while Pullman officials set the total there at over $100,000. In Mos¬ cow, eight miles from WSU, the cost was set at $1,300,000. President Jimmy Carter rushed from the White house to view the damage and Pullman mayor Peter Butkus, meeting with the President in Portland, gave him a peanut jar full of ash for daughter Amy. Pullman was not hit as hard as many other Washington towns such as Ritzville where five inches of ash were dumped on the area. Nearly, 2,000 motorists were stranded for three days as highways were blocked at Vantage. In Spokane a state of emergency was declared and everyone was ordered to stay home. Two weeks after the first blast, the cen¬ ter of campus was still blocked and work¬ men scrubbed buildings to battle the dust. Experts now say the explosion was 500 times the force of the atomic bomb drop¬ ped on Hiroshima. Millions of trees valued at $250,000,000 were blasted from the ground and Spirit Lake, a resort area, was 18

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After 123 ijears . . .

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turned into a sea of mud. The death count will probably reach nearly 100, but if the explosion had happened on a workday hundreds of loggers would have been killed in the woods. Helicopters from the military airlifted 130 survivors to safety and the search for the dead started, but many of the victims will never be found. They are buried under an estimated 30 feet of ash. Geolog¬ ists now say that the mountain blasted out 1.5 cubic miles of debris, a blast of the same magnitude as one of 79AD when Mt. Vesu- vios buried Pompeii. Many of Mount St. Helens victims were miles from the crater, outside the lines of safety officials had established. Scientists, according to U.S. News and World report, say that within several months after the explosion that the ash cloud which is invisable to the naked eye in most regions, will cover the Northern Hemisphere in the stratosphere above 55,000 feet. It is expected to drift about two years before completing its fall to earth. No matter what the effects, Students at Washington State University will remem¬ ber they survived the “ash hole” of the West caused when Mount St. Helens blew up. Above Left: brooms and hoses seemed to be the best weapons against the dust. Above: president Glenn Terrell and provost John Slaughter follow the advice about masks. Far Left: students taking advantage of the emergency leave process that Terrell offered. Left: walking turned into a hassle because of the ash. Everytime a car went by it kicked up about a ton of the stuff. It took days for the ash to settle out of the air. 19