Word: ashe
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...there was a possibility of another natural disaster. A 200-ft. wall of mud and ash from the volcano prevented the waters of Spirit Lake from flowing into the Toutle River. Local officials feared at first that the dam might suddenly give way, sending backed-up water and mud flooding through the riverbank towns of Longview, Kelso and Castle Rock, menacing the lives of 50,000 people. By the weekend, however, water was slowly seeping through the mud-and-ash plug, and pressure on the dam had eased...
Crall raced into a tent to wake Karen Varner, and Nelson wrapped his arms around Ruff as trees fell around them and hot ash rained down. Said Nelson: "We were buried. Then Sue and I started digging our way out of the ash, which was so hot that it burned our hands. Our mouths were full of mud. I told Sue we were going to die, and she said, 'Nonsense.' " As they crawled out from under the trees and ash, they began to gag from the gases in the air and had to cover their mouths with their...
When at last the darkness began to lift, Nelson and Ruff began looking for their friends. They saw nothing but ashes and logs where Varner's tent had been; she and Crall later were found dead. The two other members of the camping group, Dan Balch and Brian Thomas, were alive -barely. Burned skin hung loose from Balch's shoulders to his hands, and he was in shock. He was unable to walk. Thomas, wearing only the long john bottoms in which he had been sleeping, was lying dazed under a log. Nelson and Ruff hauled...
Then Nelson and Ruff began what turned into a 15-mile, ten-hour trek away from the mountain, over what Nelson calls a "white-hot desert" of ash. They soon joined up with a 60-year-old man. The three kept up their spirits by singing bawdy songs. In late afternoon they heard helicopters overhead and waved some of their clothes to stir up a dust cloud large enough to attract the pilot's attention. They were rescued, and choppers soon carried out Balch and Thomas as well...
...wife Lu and their two daughters, four-year-old Bonnielu and three-month-old Terra Dawn, were on a hike along the Green River trail, about 13 miles north of Mount St. Helens, when the volcano erupted. "The sky turned as black as I've ever seen, and ash and pumice fell on us like black rain," said Lu Moore. "Then the air pressure changed, and our ears went...