With the floods back east...wondering what would you all consider Washington's worst natural disaster...earthquake?fires?flooding?drought?tornados?volcano?
For now, it would have to be the eruption of Mt St. Helens.
Some interesting *facts about it that you may not have heard:
The blast was heard all the way to Canada
The main eruption lasted 10 minutes, followed by 9 HOURS of ashfall
An area stretching 8 miles fanning to a width of 15 miles was flattened. 11 HUNDRED miles of WA roads were impassable, stranding 10,000 people
200 square miles of wildlife habitat were destroyed. A million and a half animals and birds lay dead as well as a 1/2 million fish.
26 lakes were removed from the map,123 rivereside homes were washed away and 75 cabins wrecked.
A hundred miles of streams were wiped out entirely and another 3,000 miles of streams were contaminated by ashfall.
More than 1,000 people were left homeless and $2.7 BILLION in damage was caused in a single day.
57 people died.
As much as 800,000 tons of ash fell on the city of Yakima.
The ash cloud took 17 days to go around the world.
TODAY: ( as of 2001)
Bluebirds nest abundantly in the snags, pocket gophers dig holes in the ash, tilling it. Elk leave droppings which fertilize the ash. Fireweed, turns hillside pink with floweres. Trees stand over 20 feet tall in some areas.
Nature recovering!
Mount St Helens is 1,200 feet shorter now
*Facts brought to you by Uncle Johns Sumpremly Satisfying Bathroon Reader :mrgreen: I read parts of this book while camping this weekend. LOL
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Topic: Natural Disaster (Read 1699 times)