Why I chose to live between two volcanoes
Mount St. Helens erupts as Kyle eats a hotdog
You may have heard that Mount Rainier has been rumbling with quakes recently. Well, it’s true and I live just fifty miles south of Rainier and thirty-two miles north of Mount St. Helens. You might be thinking, “That wasn’t the best location to buy land.” Well, the simple answer is I never gave it much thought back then beyond, “Wow, living between volcanoes, that’s neat.”
My wife, Lorraine, dressed to go grocery shopping on May 25, 1980.
I was here when Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980. There were several smaller eruptions after that. At one point, ash blotted out the sun, streetlights stayed on late into the morning, and the ash created a gray, moonscape-like vista. It was a mess, but it was just ash—no lava. We wore masks for nearly a month. Our infant son wouldn’t wear his, so he stayed inside until the air cleared. I used my wife’s old pantyhose as an extra air filter for the VW bug we had at the time.
There were places where the St. Helens eruption caused devastating floods and killed people, but that was much closer to the mountain. Because Mount Rainier sits just east of a much more urban area, there are warning sirens and marked evacuation routes in the area. Even so, a full-scale eruption could kill tens of thousands. We would probably hear it and see the smoke and ash. I might need to collect my wife’s old pantyhose again, but at a distance of fifty miles, we would be okay.
Recently, my wife subscribed to a daily email provided by the U.S. Geological Survey. The email reports the status of all the Cascade volcanoes. There are a total of nine active volcanoes in Washington and Oregon. Call me crazy if you like, but I wouldn’t move because of them. I live in a lovely green rural area. A wide variety of trees surround my home. Nearly every day deer wander through my front yard and I have an orchard in my backyard. So, I’m staying. I’m watchful, even prepared, but not worried.