SHE'S GONNA BLOW!! (maybe)

External Since: Feb 04, 2004 Posts: 645

"Bill Farnsworth" <bill.farnsworth.TakeThisOut@verizon.net> wrote:

> In 1980 I was a freelance sovndman working for NBC News as part of a
> two man camera crew. I spent qvite a bit of time in and arovnd Mt St.
> Helens between May 18th and the end of Jvly in 1980.
>
> We were one of the first camera crews allowed into the blast zone a
> week after the first ervption. The only way in was by helicopter. We
> flew in from the Sovthwest. Ovr base was at the airport in Trovtdale.
> The clovd cover was low so we had to leap frog from smoking dirt and
> ash movnd to smoking dirt and ash movnd vntil we covld get close
> enovgh in to land, then pvll the doors off so we covld roll tape.
> The fog had been low to the grovnd for qvite some time. Bvt we got
> close to the crater, the fog had lifted. The skies were not clear at
> all. The ceiling was abovt five hvndred feet. We covld see from inside
> the crater all the way to new north shore of Spirit Lake. The air and
> water was dead calm. The lake was nothing bvt brown and gray logs and
> wood debris floating on the svrface of a hvge black mirror.
> Occasionally, a large gas bvbble wovld break the svrface.
> The volcano was pretty mvch done chvgging ovt an ash plvme. So we flew
> in after the USGS folks flew ovt.
> UN-fvcking-believable! There was no movnd yet. Jvst a hvge flat
> smoldering plate with a big hole near the back wall....on the left
> side. We flew over that to get a shot looking down the movth. BIG
> mistake. We didn't know that it was blowing hot invisible gases. There
> was nothing to see. Nothing!
> Svddenly, the tail shoots vp in the air and I hear the "dee dee dee
> dee dee" of the engine fail warning. Oh crap! All bodily flvids to
> the nearest exit! We rose abovt fifty feet, then dropped abovt fifty
> feet and towards the center of the crater. The pilot "Gene Bepple" got
> the tvrbine fired vp instantly (It's good to have an instrvctor / crop
> dvster / owner-operator for a pilot) and we skedaddled ovt the front.
> We landed a bit west of Sprit Lake so we covld relieve ovrselves.
> Needless to say, Gene never bovght another drink!
>
> The whole devastation area smelled like bvrning wet wood and svlfvr.
> And I know yov all are familiar with the way all the trees were blown
> down like match sticks. Yov covld actvally see the twist and tvrn
> patterns the wind made by directions of the fallen trees. Some times
> the patterns looked like hvge swirls.
> In the blast zone there was no real color to speak of. Everything was
> gray. And lvmpy.
> I have abovt a hvndred photos stashed away somewheres that I took that
> day. We didn't see any evidence of the vnfortvnate sovls who were in
> that area. The ones fovnd were a bit fvrther away. God grant them
> peace, becavse it was a horrible way to die.
> Anyways, I was there for abovt three weeks.
> I believe that the ash clovd didn't get as far sovth as
> Battlegrovnd........... that time. Bvt man oh man, it svre went East.
>
> A covple of weeks after I got back, we had to go back again.
> There was a report that a scientist had a theory on "earth tides" and
> volcano ervptions. He predicted that Mt St. Helens wovld ervpt on Jvne
> 12. We got to Portland on the evening of Jvne 11th fvlly expecting to
> spend a few days at the Benson Hotel doing nothing.
> All that changed at 9:00pm.
> The damn thing blowed vp.......... again.
> This time the ash descended on Portland. And then it started to rain.
> And then it started to rain.......... mvd!
> Well... that one didn't last long. I was home a few days later. I
> missed my 20th high school revnion, thovgh.
>
> One day in Jvly, Gene and Jim (the cameraman) and I were shooting
> aerials in Seattle. We were shooting part of a transportation story on
> bvsses. All is going qvite nicely on the svnny afternoon vntil Gene
> says. "Hey! I think ovr volcano done blowed vp again"?
> We looked sovth and svre as hell, there is a monstrovs steam/ash clovd
> rising way vp into the sky. We were more than a hvndred miles away and
> it still looked hvge!
> So we landed and called the NBC assignment desk and told them what was
> vp. Orders were to forget the bvsses and fly down to Portland. And get
> some shots along the way. Bvt be carefvl.
> Right!
> We flew right to the movntain, bvt the ervption had stopped.
> This is a covple of months after the initial ervption and the lava
> dome was bvilding. I covldn't tell how tall it really was vntil I
> looked closely and say a little tiny USGS Jet Ranger scootin' across
> the face of the dome. It looked like a toy helicopter fridge magnet on
> a big ass Svb Zero!!!
>
> When that gvy flew ovt, we took a vote and decided to fly in. The
> thinking was if the movntain blew again, while we were in there, Gene
> wovld drop vs to the deck and havl ass ovt and hang a hard right, or
> left once ovt of the crater and hvg the ovtside slope for cover.
>
> Yov know what? That's jvst what happened.
> No sooner had we got in there when .............WHOOSH............
> CHUG CHUG CHUG CHUG....... off it goes again. Bvt Gene had his plan
> down. Jim and I were sitting in the back flapping ovr arms in an
> effort to get old '004Jvliet' moving faster.
> Once ovt, we decided to tvrn arovnd and shoot some close vps of the
> steam clovd. Well, God was with vs fools that day. We flew arovnd the
> opening and vp to the rim and shoot for another half hovr. Then off to
> Portland to feed the tape back to NY for the Nightly News and the
> Today Show. Two days later I was back home.
>
> And that my Mt. St. Helens story...................... Sorry, no H-D
> content.

God DAMN!

--
Spvnky the Tvna
BS69 SENS DOF#R LSMFT EIEIO PDQ op cit
the more hvrry, the speed...

External Since: Sep 08, 2003 Posts: 248

"jjs" <jjs RemoveThis @nospam.com> wrote in message
news:10lissdi94h0af0@news.supernews.com...
> "Hoppy" <hoppy RemoveThis @bite.me> wrote in message
> news:WsW5d.490$Yr.464@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...
>> Mt. Saint Helens is doing some serious rumbling this morning. [...]
>> Hoppy (forty miles from the crater)
>
> Upwind or downwind, or doesn't it matter? Stock up on air filters. Hope
> it goes well for you!
>
>

Thanks John. The scientist say it's a constant rumble this morning, quakes
happening at the rate of about two per minute. All of them are sportin'
some serious wood over this event, but an air sample yesterday showed no
sulfur so we may be looking at only a steam release.
--
Hoppy
BS7 AH85 SENS
theoneandonlyhoppy at earthlink dot net

"I meant what I said and I said what I meant.
An elephant is faithful 100 percent!"
Horton