ARES, Kilauea, and the 38th Anniversary of the Mt. St. Helens Eruption

The recent news of increased lava flows and alarming near future predictions for Mt. Kilauea, and now the involvement of ARES in preparing to assist, reminded me of the previous tragedy. Hopefully nothing of this sort occurs in KH-land.

http://www.arrl.org/news/informal-a...ined-in-wake-of-volcanic-eruptions-in-hawai-i

This coming Friday, in 1980, Mount Saint Helens in Washington state exploded. The following text is copied and (adapted) from a K7CEM ARES newsletter of two years ago,

http://k7cem.com/wp/?p=1070



(Soon it will be the 38 year anniversary) of the Mt. St. Helens eruption. For those of us that lived and worked here, it was an amazing time. For some, when Mt. St. Helens erupted at 8:32am, time had run out.

Did you know that in addition to Dr. Dave Johnston who worked for the USGS – Johnston Ridge is named for him – there were also two ham radio operators on the mountain and lost their lives that morning?

On a ridge two miles behind Dr. Johnston, Jerry Martin, W6TQF was also sitting watching the mountain for the Washington State Emergency Services. Jerry was a ARES/RACES officer and the state had asked for amateur radio volunteers. Also present on the mountain was Reid Blackburn, KA7AMF. Jerry and Reid went into the field to help the U.S. Geological Service and the National Geographic Society set up remote cameras in order to make scientific observations.

On May 18, 1980, Sunday, 8:32am, Mt. St. Helens erupted. Jerry was at his post 10 miles from the volcano using the tactical callsign “Coldwater 2”. He radioed in the emergency that the volcano had erupted. Jerry witnessed the devastation overwhelm Dave Johnston’s position and quickly radioed in the information. Jerry’s last words were “Gentlemen, the camper and car sitting to the south of me is covered. It’s gonna get me too. I can’t get out of here.” There was probably more but Jerry’s radio went dead at that moment.

Reid was a few miles closer to Mt. St. Helens than Jerry. No signal was ever received from him. Later that afternoon a helicopter found his car burning in several feet of smoldering volcanic ash. It was not safe to recover his body for three days.

With Jerry and Reid’s death, however, hams were not done. Dr. Johnston’s famous last words “Vancouver, Vancouver… This is it!” were never heard in Vancouver. Instead a ham radio operator monitoring the frequency (2m FM repeater) recorded those last words. By the end of the operations hams had passed over 3,000 messages.

We do not normally think of ham radio as something one can die from. Jerry and Reid made the ultimate sacrifice by using ham radio to help. Let’s remember Jerry and Reid as we also remember the others who were lost when Mt. St. Helens erupted that day (38) years ago.

Presumed author Bob Willey KD7OWN

Other sources state the call sign W7W is often activated and used for commemoration during the anniversary.

John WØPV

 

I was never aware of the ham ops that lost their lives that fateful day.One can only imagine the horror
of being swallowed up in that mess. May they now rest in peace! Respectfully,
Gregory L.Mitchell-W2MYA, West Caldwell,N.J.

 

The folks that lost their lives, while regrettable, to wanted to watch the eruption up close. The were warned and fully understood the situation.

They happened to have 2m radios.

 

To K6CLS, your perspective on that morning is probably much different than the people who were there doing their job. Yes, we knew the potential danger but we didn't fully understand the situation. Nobody did, including the scientists. Notice I said we. I was their that morning working with a crew of tree planters. I know of one other tree planting crew that was their as well. Fortunately we survived, unfortunately 57 people did not, including Dave Johnston. He was doing what he loved, as was I. We weren't their to site see.
Mike/N7AE

 

RIP

 

Most people forget that Mt. St. Helens erupted a second time a week later. Not as tremendous as the first eruption, but the second eruption put inches of volcanic ash on western WA...

 

Truly a Tragic event for the folks in the area and the Hams mentioned.

Here is an interesting general comparison between Kilauea and mt St Helens.

Kilauea and Mt St Helens Comparison Essay - 803 Palabras | Cram
https://www.cram.com/essay/Kilauea-And-Mt-St-Helens-Comparison/F3JVPVH3XJ

Our thoughts are with the folks on that south east area of the Big Island and donations to the Red Cross and Salvation Army plus
boxes of useful items are being sent over there by individuals and organizations.

G3SEA/KH6

 

Thanks Mike

 

I fault the government agencies that put volunteers in harms way without a safe escape route. Granted they did not know the extent of the potential eruption but emergency managers are taught to always plan for the worst case scenario. RIP those who lost their lives. When a huge eruption takes place (and it eventually will) at Mt. Shasta or one of the volcanoes in the Cascade Range (Portland Metro and Seattle) the loss of life is likely to be huge. They are all very close to heavily populated areas with minimal escape routes even with advanced warning--which may or may not happen.

 

St. Helen's event - the worlds biggest historic landslide triggering a blast equivalent to 24 MEGATONS of TNT.

Holding individuals and governments responsible for risks taken is expedient but IMO the magnitude of this tragedy easily crossed into the philosophical realm called an act of God.

73, John, WØPV

 

I heard it go off, from Tonasket it was loud. I don’t think DEM was ready for the speed or the force.

 

Mike had you been part of the tree planting crew that was with Kathy Anderson?

 

Mt. St. Helens put out several ash plumes in the days following May 18, 1980. At the time, I was an ARES District Emergency Coordinator living in Richland, WA. During one of our statewide nets on 75 meters, the band was doing well, and then over the space of about 5 seconds it faded out to nothing. I learned later that the mountain had belched out another huge ash plume right then. It was interesting to see what the plume did to propagation.

 

On that fateful Sunday my 3 sons and I were fishing on Big Sturgeon Lake on Sauvies Island on the Columbia River
about 30 air miles from the volcano. I will never forget my youngest saying as he pointed to wards the volcano....
"hey Dad whats that? A huge plum of ash was over 30,000 feet in the sky...I turned on the radio on my new 3 week
old pickup truck and the airwaves were pandemonium. I told the boys to pack up and make our 1 hour drive back to
our home in Portland. By then the ash fall out began and that was another story. When I sold my truck 6 years later
there was still small traces of ash in parts of the body. My ham call at the time was KG7FS and I worked for Portland
Radio in town. Good memories and sad ones too.

de Rich K8UV in SE Michigan

 

May 18th 1980 , Sunday morning. I was getting our boat ready to go fishing. I heard what sounded like thunder , looked up and saw very dark clouds. My wife came out of the house and told me St. Helen's blew. So I began covering up the boat and putting things away. She filled everything she could find to hold water because we did not know how this will effect our water supply. Watched and listen to tv and broadcast radio to what was going on. By 12:00 noon the Yakima area was so dark the street lights came on . It was so quiet , so eerie . No birds no cars no people out and about. Kind of scary.