Firstly, I would like to say J, I love you man! You don't take shit from anyone and that's fantastic. Keep your chin up my friend and get your ass over here Sunday so we can hang out! That's not a request, that's an order! ;-)
The big buzz around here lately is Mt. Saint Helens...apparently, there's a good possibility she'll blow sometime soon. Everyone is talking about it, waiting, watching. You see, there's not a lot of natural disasters here in WA State. Nope. Oh, a couple earthquakes here and there on the west side and a couple small twisters in the east, but that's about it. Sometimes we forget about the small chain of volcano's sleeping quietly nearby.
St. Helens is the most vocal. In 1980, she blew her top big time. An earthquake of 5.1 rocked the area and the entire north face of the mountain blew away, clearing almost 230 miles of forest. It was just laid over like toothpicks. Seriously. I saw it with my own eyes when my family paid a visit to the National Park to take it all in.
I'm glad people are actually paying attention now. Before the last eruption, no one took reports or scientific observation too seriously, but luckly most people were cautious and evacuated when told. A few didn't, and I'll give you one guess where they are now...Actually, only 57 people died in that eruption, thanks to the remote location of the mountain.
I think we've learned now the appearence of a large, rapidly growing buldge in the side of a rocky mountain is something to be concerned about. No one is cracking jokes and laughing about crazy scientists and government conspiracies.
No, we're just waiting...
I wonder if I'll see the cloud this time? The black cloud of ash that rained down on us despite being hundreds of miles away. I was only four, but I do remember my mom calling my cousin and I into the house because the sky got black. I wonder if we'll hear the crack as it tears apart? Or if there'll even be one loud enough for us to hear all the way over here?
It's kind of exciting. Kind of scary. Very much amazing.
However impressive St. Helens is when erupting, I'm more worried about this one:
Most Dangerous Volcano in the Cascades Thankfully, she's been pretty quiet.
Posted by Zoso at September 29, 2004 08:22 PM